


I First Tasted The Universe On A Night Like This

by theinvisibledisaster



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Once Upon a Time Fusion, Banter, Bellamy as Hook, Clarke as Emma, Flashbacks, Madi as Henry, Magic, Marper as Snowing, Neverland (Once Upon a Time), Pirate Bellamy, Slow Burn Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, c'mon it was bound to happen eventually, don't @ me i'm clearly insane, i cast basically the whole town okay, i had to dip my toes into this, i've written almost every other blarke trope/pairing, which then turned into diving headfirst into it and rolling around in it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22949902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theinvisibledisaster/pseuds/theinvisibledisaster
Summary: Monty sighed. “Clarke, I know I wasn’t there to teach you to walk but you cannot have missed the part of life where you learn not to bottle up your feelings. And if you have, I’m here to unbottle them right now.”“Right now might not be such a good idea,” Clarke lifted a branch so they could duck under it. “Seeing as we’re on a mission to save my daughter, in Neverland, with my not-dead ex, a pirate, a once-evil warlock, my parents who are the same age as me, and Rumplestiltskin.”Or, the Bellarke Captain Swan AU that got way out of hand.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Comments: 30
Kudos: 163





	I First Tasted The Universe On A Night Like This

**Author's Note:**

> @goodqueenalys BRIBED ME so i HAD to write this companion piece to Hold Onto Hope, i don’t make the rules, i just accept bribes
> 
> if you want to read the Marper as Snowing mini-fic that inspired this, you can find it [HERE!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19387387/chapters/50097413)
> 
> Song title comes from "Homecoming" by Josh Ritter and honestly entire vibe this has just absolutely slaps so I highly recommend listening to it.

_When the oracle spoke to me she was like a roadside song (don't go away now)_  
_Do unto others as you would have them do_  
_Even if in turn they do you wrong (hey now)_  
_This town right here is my everything_  
_Though I've been torn away (don't go away now)  
  
_ _It has my heart_  
_It has my heart_  
_They stole my heart_  
_My heart is there_

Clarke was having a good day - she’d gone for coffee with Lexa after dropping Madi at school, and she collared her first bail jumper before lunch - and then that man showed up and everything went downhill. First, he tried to kiss her. Then, when she rebuffed him and told him to get lost, he made up some nonsense story about knowing her. When she finally managed to get rid of him, her next case fell through and Lexa cancelled on lunch because work was making her stay late, so Clarke was left at a table in a fancy restaurant on her own. There was no logical reason to blame those things on the mysterious man, but when he sat down across from her, she decided she could blame him anyway.

“Princess, look, I know this seems crazy but I promise you - you know me,” he pleaded with her. He was wearing a lot of leather for California in the summer, and his hair was a mess of curls but the wind seemed to be actively trying to make it look good, which was a little annoying.

“If you don’t leave this restaurant in the next minute, I _will_ pepper spray you,” she said, fingers twitching next to her unused fork. He glanced down at them, eyes widening fractionally, before flicking back up to hers. She realised there was nothing stopping _her_ from leaving, and tossed her napkin down and got to her feet. “And don’t call me that! I’ve told you, I don’t know you; you’re mistaken or you’re crazy and either way I want nothing to do with it, so you need to get out of my way.”

She stepped forward and he stood up right into her path, albeit a little hesitantly, gaze darting towards her purse. When she raised an eyebrow at him and stepped to her left, he moved with her.

“You’re testing my patience,” she warned.

“So nothing out of the norm then,” he deadpanned, in a way that implied there was some sort of in-joke they should be sharing, and something about the familiarity of the tone jarred in her head. Initially, she just assumed that the story about him knowing her had sprung from embarrassment from trying to kiss her, but this didn’t feel like a bluff. He really did think he knew her. Which put one more notch in the crazy column.

“Look, I don’t want to have you arrested for stalking, but I’ll do it.” Clarke shoulder-checked him out of her way and stepped into the street, making a beeline for a cab.

Before she could get to it, the man’s hand wrapped around her elbow. “Princess, please just hear me out - your parents are in danger. I’ve been sent to find you, to bring you back to Storyborough so you can help everyone, and I know this goes against every one of your instincts but you have to start listening to me.”

“I don’t have to do anything,” she snapped, yanking her arm back and stepping into the cab. She slammed the door in his face and gave the address of her next job to the driver, who pulled away from the curb and left the man in the dust. Glancing at him, she almost felt bad about it, until she remembered she didn’t know him and shook off the feeling.

The rest of the day progressed pretty slowly, and she was in a bad mood for most of it. By the time she got to her last case of the day, she was not in the mood for any kind of shenanigans. So naturally, when she knocked on the door of the bail jumper, who should answer the door but the strange man she was trying to avoid.

She set her jaw. “What the hell.”

“Hey Princess, fancy seeing you here,” he flashed a smile at her.

“You’re Neal Craven?”

“Nope.”

“Then what are you doing in his apartment?”

“It belongs to a friend of mine,” he shrugged, stepping aside as if to let her in, but she didn’t move. “Well, not so much a friend as a… relatively irritating acquaintance, but he told me I could use his place when I came up here. Neal Craven is just the alias he uses when he’s in California, I’m pretty sure you knew him when he was in Chicago - Finn Collins?”

Clarke’s heart jumped into her mouth so fast she was concerned she might choke on it. “What?! Is _that_ what this is about? Finn’s trying to get you to tail me so he can mosey back into my life? Does he want Madi? Because I have legal custody and it took me a long time to get it and I’m not giving it up now, not for anyone.”

“I’m not trying to take Madi away from you, Princess, I would never do that,” he looked offended at the very idea. “I didn’t even know you were coming here today.”

“Don’t call me that, and do you _seriously_ expect me to believe that me showing up here was just a coincidence?”

“I don’t expect you to believe anything,” he sighed. “I… Listen, you’re here looking for Finn so you may as well stick around for a while, surprise him when he gets back. I’m not going to try and kiss you again, I learned my lesson; you don’t remember me, I get it. I’ll make you a cup of coffee and we can start over.”

She hesitated. A part of her inexplicably trusted this man, despite his insane behaviour over the last few hours, and she had no idea why. She wrapped a hand around her pepper spray. “If you make a single move towards me I will use this.”

“Deal,” he said, taking another step back to make enough room for her to walk over the threshold without touching.

She glanced around the place - it was smaller than she expected Finn to have, and cosier, but it definitely reminded her of him. There was a dreamcatcher on the window, which made no sense, but Finn had never really tried to make a lot of sense. She hummed softly to herself as she paced around, trying to work out why she had the strangest sense of deja vu. She turned around to find the man standing beside her.

He stuck a hand out, “Seeing as we’re starting over I might as well introduce myself. Bellamy Blake.”

She shook it. “Clarke Griffin - _not_ a Princess.”

“That’s what you think,” he smirked, and strode off towards the kitchen. She poked around while he prepared the coffee, and she noticed he didn’t have to ask before putting two sugars in hers. She eyed it warily before sipping it and he frowned. “I haven’t drugged the sugar or anything. I would never do that Princess, you know that- sorry. I guess you don’t know that; I’m the crazy guy who won’t leave you alone. But I swear, on Gina’s life, I would never do that, not to you, not to anyone.”

She tilted her head. “Who’s Gina?”

“My… she died,” Bellamy rubbed the back of his neck. “You knew about her, before you… anyway, I loved her and she died, and on her soul I would never hurt you.”

“I believe you,” Clarke said, and she was surprised to find that she did. She sipped the coffee - exactly the way she liked it - and went back to examining the apartment. “So how do you know Finn?”

“It’s a long story, one which you definitely won’t believe,” he said.

“Fair enough,” she squinted at the bookshelf by the bedroom door. There was a photo on one of the shelves that she must have been looking at wrong, because it couldn’t be what she thought it was. She looked closer - there, sitting on the couch in the living room, were herself and Madi. “Bellamy, what the fuck is this?”

“Those are called books, Princess, and they’re often-”

“For the last time, _stop_ calling me that!” Clarke picked up the frame and shoved it in his face. “Explain!”

He held up his hands in surrender. “When you came here last year, you and Madi stayed a while because Finn’s dad got sick - another long story - and Finn likes taking photos. He’s got a few of me floating around somewhere too.”

“We were never here,” she said, but her voice wavered with uncertainty. This couldn’t be possible. “Last year Madi and I were in Chicago.”

“No, you were in Storyborough and you left to find Finn.”

“That never happened.”

“I’m sorry Pr- Clarke, but it did.”

“That’s impossible, I wouldn’t just forget something like that,” she said, but she was beginning to doubt herself.

Bellamy opened his mouth, paused, and closed it, striding over to the window where the dreamcatcher was hanging. He took it down and brought it over to Clarke, placing it in her hands. “Think about Finn.”

She made a face. “Are you on something?”

He surprised her by laughing, and one of his hands closed around hers, holding the dreamcatcher between them. His other stayed dangling by his side, and something about it struck her as odd, but she was too distracted by his close proximity to think about it. She wasn’t as bothered by it as she wanted to be, and the way he swayed ever so slightly towards her before remembering his place made something swirl behind her eyes - something almost like recognition. Bellamy jerked his chin, “I know it doesn’t make sense, but indulge me for just a second and think about Finn when you knew him, and how in love with him you were.”

Clarke wanted to roll her eyes, but she also wanted to stop holding a dreamcatcher, so she decided to roll with it. She looked down at the criss-crossing strings and thought about the first time she met Finn, and the moments after that, and the day he left, and-

“Oh my god.”

The strings were melting away, and inside the circle there were figures moving, like a movie slowly coming into focus.

“That’s me,” she whispered. Herself and Madi were sitting in the living room, talking to someone she didn’t recognise, and Finn was ruffling Madi’s hair.

_“You know, you should really consider cutting down on the sugar, Princess,” Bellamy walked into view, handing Clarke a cup of coffee, and passing another to Finn. He had a **hook** for a left hand._

_“Oh really?” Clarke smirked over the edge of the mug. “The day I take dietary advice from a pirate is the day I agree to date one, Bellamy.”_

_“So sooner, rather than later?” Bellamy winked at her._

_“In your dreams, pirate.”_

_“Absolutely, Princess.”_

_Finn scrunched up his face in irritation. “Would you two not flirt in my apartment, please? It’s bad enough that you’re even friends, but I won’t stand for openly making eyes at each other in front of our daughter.”_

_“I’m not making eyes at Bellamy,” Clarke said indignantly._

_“Doesn’t look like talking,” Finn pointed out._

_“Doesn’t feel like flirting,” Bellamy countered._

_“Looks suspect to me,” the other man said._

_“That’s not helpful,” Clarke frowned over at him._

_“What, I’m not allowed to join in on happy families? That’s my granddaughter, I deserve to know that she’s getting the right stepfather, and seeing as Mr Blake was trying to kill me not two weeks ago, I’m not inclined to support the match.”_

_“Good thing I have never asked for your permission, Lightbourne,” she retorted._

_“Please don’t date Bellamy just to spite my dad,” Finn begged._

_“For the last time, I’m not flirting with him! Now much as I love this quality family time,” she glared at the man - Lightbourne - before turning a softer gaze back to Finn, “what did you bring us here for?”_

_“I think I might have a lead on the magic beans,” he said, lifting a heavy tome from the shelf and flicking through to a specific chapter._

_Madi beamed. “Well then what are we waiting for? Lead the way, Dad!”_

Clarke blinked down at the scene. She didn’t remember any of this, but she couldn’t deny that was her face, and the face of her daughter. The only thing she could think of was that it might be some kind of elaborate DeepFakes situation, but she wasn’t sure how someone could implement that technology inside a dreamcatcher. She tore her gaze from it and looked up to find Bellamy’s face inches from hers, anxious anticipation in his eyes.

“What is this?” she asked, terrified of the answer.

“Finn’s memory,” Bellamy explained. “It was the first time Madi ever called him ‘Dad’ and when he heard the curse was coming back, he gave me a bunch of these to stash. Most of them are back in Storyborough but I made sure to bring some of them here when I arrived. It was a contingency.”

“A contingency for _what?”_

“Another curse, amnesia, various witch encounters, not to mention anything Lightbourne does-”

“No.” Clarke wrenched her hands from under his and the dreamcatcher clattered to the floor. “No, I’m done entertaining this now. When is Finn getting back?”

Bellamy pressed his lips together. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know, you live with him!”

“No, I’m just staying here. Finn isn’t in California, or at least, he wasn’t last time I checked. It’s the curse, Clarke, I’m telling you - things have gotten really bad and we need you.”

“No, enough!” She yelled. He looked at her placatingly but it only aggravated her more and she stormed towards the door. “Enough of this bullshit about curses and magic and witches! I am going back to my normal life with my girlfriend and my daughter and my job; you’re a crazy person and if I see you again I’m filing a restraining order.”

“Clarke-”

She slammed it behind her, practically sprinting towards the elevator, and checked her watch. She needed to pick up Madi.

When she arrived outside the school gate she was a little late, but Madi didn’t seem to mind, deep in conversation with one of the girls in her class until Clarke waved at her from the curb. She jogged over, backpack slung across her shoulder, and grinned up at her. “How was your day?”

Clarke smiled and dropped a kiss to the crown of her head. “Busy. How was your day?”

“Awesome! We learned how to identify between safe and unsafe spiders,” she beamed.

“I’d say _all_ spiders are unsafe spiders,” Clarke argued.

Madi huffed goodnaturedly. “That’s just because you don’t like them.”

“It’s not my fault - they look shifty.”

“They’re not bail jumpers, Mom.”

Clarke chuckled but it faded faster than usual; the day’s events whirring through her mind. She rolled her keys between her fingers pensively. “Madi? Do you believe in magic?”

“Like Santa and the tooth fairy? I’m thirteen, Mom, not three.”

“Right,” Clarke said, pasting a smile on her face as Madi started listing off the characteristics of safe spiders. But something about it didn’t feel right. If she was honest with herself, something hadn’t been sitting right with her for the last year, but she’d always managed to ignore it. However, since Bellamy arrived it was like the tiny niggling in the back of her mind had become a symphony orchestra and it was becoming harder and harder to pretend she couldn’t hear it.

* * *

_Clarke was standing in the middle of a forest she didn’t recognise, staring down the point of a sword, at the end of which was Bellamy Blake. There was some sort of battle raging behind her but she couldn’t see it; he had her cornered and there was no way she was turning her head to catch a glimpse. He was grinning at her._

_“Nice to meet you, Princess,” he said, inclining his head in a sort of mock-bow. “Sorry about the whole ‘capturing your friends’ thing - it’s nothing personal, I just need to get over to your realm and doors are hard things to come by. Besides, you all escaped, so it’s not like I did any permanent damage.”_

_She tried not to swallow as the sharp metal rested lightly against her throat. This was starting to feel more familiar by the second and for some reason she knew instantly what to say. “You know, jackass, if you’d just asked we would have let you use the magic bean with us. Why would you align yourself with Shumway?”_

_“Because he offered first,” Bellamy said, gaze hardening slightly._

_“That’s it? First dibs wins? Simple rules for a pirate,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him in challenge._

_“I wasn’t always a pirate, Princess,” he said, the amusement completely gone from his voice, and then someone yelled and Clarke whipped her head around to see something glinting in the light as it flew towards her._

_Niylah had thrown it. She caught it reflexively: it was a sword - smaller than his, but enough to even the playing field a little, and she used it to swipe his blade out from under her chin. He readjusted the sword in his hand, twirling it through his fingers dramatically._

_“Now **this** -” he said, moving to strike. She parried it and he flashed his teeth at her. It was like he was actually having fun, “-this is more like it. I knew you had some fight in you.”_

_“You’d be surprised,” she said, swinging the sword wide._

_He stopped it inches from his face. “I like surprises.”_

_“That makes one of us,” Clarke said, parrying another blow._

_“Good to know,” he sidestepped her forward jab. “For a princess, your technique isn’t half bad-” he flicked his sword and suddenly she was no longer on the offensive, forced to keep defending herself against his blows as he backed her towards a huge tree, “-but it doesn’t beat out mine.”_

_“NO!” Harper yelled, and Clarke glanced around to see Nia holding one of the magic beans. She tossed it to the ground, opening up a portal, and winked at them before jumping through it, the arrow that would have hit her burying itself in a tree._

_Bellamy took the opportunity of Clarke’s distraction to get closer and she barely managed to block his next strike. She was in serious trouble and she knew in that moment that she was going to lose._

_She parried his downward thrust, trying to hold him off, and heard someone yell out in pain. Clarke turned her head slightly to see Niylah on the ground, Shumway standing over her with her own heart in her hand, squeezing it as Harper tried to get through the magical barrier he’d put up and Luna fought off two of his footsoldiers. Movement flickered in her peripheral vision and Clarke flinched, ready for the pirate’s killing blow, but it never came._

_Instead, she watched him dive at Shumway, grab the heart from his startled hand, and slam him in the solar plexus with the butt of his sword. Shumway dropped to his knees, the spell faltering, and Harper crashed through. She froze in front of Bellamy, who still held Niylah’s heart in his hand, but he shook his head at her._

_“I’m not in the business of killing people who don’t deserve it, Your Majesty,” he said, and she took the heart from his outstretched hand._

_“Thank you,” Harper said._

_“This doesn’t mean we’re on the same side,” he muttered, stepping towards the portal. “It just means I can’t resist a pretty face.”_

_And before any of them could stop him, he jumped through._

_“I think he means you,” Luna panted, putting her foot up on one of her felled opponents as she looked to Clarke._

_Clarke scrunched up her nose. “Lucky me. Come on, we need to get back.”_

_Niylah got to her feet, heart safely returned to her chest, and pointed a sword between Shumway’s eyes. “You two go - Luna and I have got this. We’ll make sure Shumway gets nowhere near this portal and you and Harper get back to Storyborough where you belong, see your family, find out what the Evil King is up to, and why the pirate needs to get to that realm so bad.”_

_“Come with us,” Harper urged._

_“Not a chance,” Luna said, shoving them both towards the portal as it started to close. “Things just started to get fun around here.”_

_And then they were falling through it, twisting and spinning into the nether, and Clarke thought desperately of Storyborough and her daughter and her friends and hoped it would take her back to them._

* * *

Clarke gasped, waking from her dream with a start.

She must have fallen asleep on the couch after sending Madi to bed, because _Murder, She Wrote_ reruns were playing on the TV that she didn’t remember turning off. She tried to remember the dream but it was already slipping away. All she could cling onto was the smell of forest and sunlight glinting off a sword - no specifics. It was annoying, like she’d forgotten something important, and she tried to reach for it again as she yawned, stretching out her stiff neck and shoulders, but there was nothing to find.

She wondered why she’d woken so suddenly, but it didn’t take long; there was another knock at the door.

“Clarke? Clarke I’ve been calling you all evening, have you been avoiding my calls? Just because I missed lunch? I swear I’ll make it up to you baby!” Lexa called through the wood.

Clarke tossed off the blanket around her legs and shuffled to the door, opening it to find her girlfriend looking more than a little flustered. “Sorry, it’s been a long day. I’m not mad about lunch, really I’m not, I swear, I just haven’t checked my phone since I got home.”

“Oh.” Lexa blinked. “I thought you were going to break up with me or something.”

“Over one missed lunch?”

She smiled wanly. “Yeah in hindsight I guess that doesn’t make any sense. Hey, I don’t want to wake Madi up, do you want to go to the bar downstairs, get a drink?”

“And leave Madi alone?”

“It’s late, she’s asleep, you can lock the door - she’ll be fine.”

Clarke hesitated, but Lexa was right - she picked this apartment building for its safety features, and the bar downstairs was right by the elevator if she needed to get back up fast. “One drink, okay? You’re buying.”

“Deal.”

When they arrived at the bar, Lexa ordered while Clarke found them a table in the corner and sat down, trying to shake the day’s worries off her back. It wasn’t working particularly well. Lexa sat down with the drinks and Clarke thanked her and sipped the cider slowly.

“You look wrung out,” Lexa tilted her head.

“Busy day,” Clarke shrugged.

“I’m sorry baby, what happened?”

“Nothing in particular,” she lied, “just a lot of bail jumpers who thought running was a good idea.”

Lexa smiled and placed her hand over Clarke’s on the table. “Well that’s just one day. It’ll be better tomorrow.”

“What happened with you, why did you have to cancel lunch?”

“I had a meeting fall through and I was trying to chase it up,” she shrugged. Clarke blinked. That was odd - Lexa was lying to her. She tried to shake the feeling, but her in-built lie detector didn’t lie, and Lexa had just lied to her face. Glancing between their glasses, she squeezed Clarke’s hand. “It’s last call and we’re the only ones here - one more drink?”

Clarke squinted at her. “One.”

Lexa walked over to the bar and Clarke finished off the remnants of her drink, taking a deep breath, centering herself.

A hand came down over hers on the table.

She started. “What-”

Bellamy was sitting in Lexa’s vacated chair. “I’m sorry, Princess, I’m so sorry, but we need to get out of here.”

She wrenched her hand free. “Get away from me!”

“You’re in danger,” he said urgently. “I’m sorry, I should have realised sooner, I just, I wasn’t paying attention; I didn’t think anyone would be after you, I thought you were safe.”

She wanted to punch him, she really did, but his fear was real. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Your girlfriend,” he glanced towards the bar. “She’s dangerous.”

“She’s a stockbroker.”

“In more ways than one, then,” he said, and she had a feeling that was another one of those jokes that he told around her, comfortable, like it was a thing he did all the time. “Listen to me, I know you don’t believe in this stuff, but she’s powerful and evil, and-”

“She’s a normal person, Bellamy, unlike you, so you need to leave before she gets back and you get all your crazy all over her-”

“Captain Blake.” Lexa was standing over the table, drinks in hand. “This is pathetic, really.”

Bellamy stood up, positioning himself so he was half in front of Clarke, and squared up to the woman. “Leave her alone, witch.”

“You know, in this realm, that word is considered sexist,” she said. “Not a great first impression to make in front of your damsel in distress.”

“She’s not a damsel,” he growled. “And you know what you are, witch.”

Lexa looked at him, at his hand wrapped around the hilt of a sword on his belt, and across him to meet Clarke’s eyes. In that moment, Clarke saw something she’d never seen in those eyes before - _hate_. “Very well. If it’s a fight you want, pirate, it’s a fight you shall get.”

She waved a hand and a table lifted into the air and flew across the room, slamming into Bellamy. He was thrown to the floor, hard, and Clarke scrambled away from her girlfriend, heart racing. She ended up on her knees beside Bellamy, checking he was okay as he moaned and attempted to lift his head. She looked at the broken wood next to him, trying to come to terms with what she’d just seen.

“Lexa, what is this?”

“This is magic,” she said, rolling her wrist, and a ball of glowing purple energy appeared around it, crackling ominously. She glanced down at Bellamy, who was rapidly regaining his senses, sitting up and trying to push Clarke behind him again. “And now you’re in my way. Both of you.”

She threw the ball of energy backwards and it hit the two people standing, shocked, behind the bar. They cried out, folding in on themselves as the magic glittered angrily around them, and then they were gone, and in their places were two winged monkeys.

Lexa smiled at them, twisted, and then flicked her fingers and she vanished in a puff of green smoke.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Clarke said, right before they launched themselves at her and Bellamy.

She dove to the side, covering her face with her arms to defend against the claws, and peeked out to see one of them was on top of Bellamy, using its wings to stop him from reaching for his sword.

He rolled to avoid a particularly sharp swipe of claws and ended up closer to her, sword almost within her arm’s reach. They locked eyes, and he knew immediately what her plan was, both of his forearms barred across his neck to stop the monkey getting to it, and he shifted slightly, _just close enough_. She stopped trying to push the monkey off her for a split second, reaching across and yanking the sword from its scabbard.

She swung upwards violently, connecting with a wing, and the entire creature turned to black dust in a tiny explosion, raining down on her. She coughed, closing her eyes, and shook it off. She got up on one knee and thrust the sword across, hitting the one on top of Bellamy. It exploded in a similar fashion, leaving Bellamy spluttering on the floor but otherwise unharmed. “You good?” Clarke panted.

He glanced up at her. “Not ready for marriage yet, but it’s nice of you to ask.”

She realised the position she was in and rolled her eyes, getting off her knees and helping him up with her. “What was that?”

“I’m sorry, the flying monkeys didn’t give that away?”

“Bellamy-”

“It was the Wicked Witch of the West, and I know you don’t remember this stuff yet, but she’s not on our side.”

“No kidding,” Clarke said sarcastically, brushing sparkling black rocks off her shirt. She handed his sword to him and he returned it to its sheath, keeping his hand on the hilt. She swallowed. “I just killed two people.”

“No, Lexa replaced them with her creatures. It’s a displacement spell, not transmorphic,” he said, reassuring, and stepped closer as if to comfort her, but she moved back instinctively and he backed off. “You live near here?”

“Yeah, upstairs, why?”

He started towards the elevator. “Because now that Lexa knows you know, she’ll be back with reinforcements. We need to get back to Storyborough.”

She jabbed the button for her floor with more aggression than she intended to. “You keep saying that, but I’ve never even heard of this place!”

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking at her from under his lashes. “Look, there is a way for you to remember. There’s… a potion you can take that will restore all your memories. But I know how insane that sounds, and as someone who wants you to trust him, I didn’t want to start the conversation by offering you something that appeared to be a roofie.”

“No, you just thought you’d kiss me,” she snapped.

“Admittedly, not a great plan. It makes more sense if you know where I come from,” he winced.

“Are you seriously pleading cultural differences?”

“No,” he barked out a laugh. “I _am_ sorry about that.”

“Good,” the elevator doors dinged and bounced jovially apart, and she led the way to her apartment. They shuffled in and she made sure to lock the doors behind them, checking Madi’s room to make sure she was still okay - the girl was sound asleep, thank god. Bellamy leaned against the kitchen counter, surveying the place. She brushed past him and started making a cup of coffee, something she always did when she was stressed.

“Not the kind of place I expected you to have, Princess,” he said idly.

“I guess you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” she retorted, adding an extra sugar to her coffee because at this point she needed it. She didn’t want to admit that this wasn’t her favourite place either and she’d never been able to put her finger on why. “Coffee?”

“I’m fine.”

Clarke took a big draught of her own and turned to face him. “Okay. Where’s this potion?”

He rummaged around his inside pocket before pulling out a tiny purple vial that shone oddly in the dim light. “It’s just one dose, which means Madi still won’t remember - we’ll have to come up with a cover story to bring her to Storyborough - but it’s enough to restore your memories.”

She took the bottle from him and eyed it warily.

“It’s not poison,” he promised. “Use your superpower on me - I’m not lying.”

“I know,” she muttered. “You haven’t lied to me once, all day.”

And she downed the vial in one.

For a long few seconds, nothing happened. Then her brain started to ache, like the swell before a wave, and she lifted a hand to her temple right before the memories came flooding back into her head.

* * *

_“I’m your daughter,” the girl said, crossing her arms indignantly. “And you need to come with me.”_

_“That’s impossible, kid.”_

_“Nothing’s impossible,” the girl rolled her eyes. “Besides, are you really gonna kick an eleven-year-old girl out on the street?”_

* * *

_Clarke shuffled into Miller’s Diner, exhausted. She’d come up against Roan, Madi’s adoptive father - who Madi kept claiming was some kind of evil wizard king - and been accused of trying to kidnap her own daughter despite being the person who’d brought her back. She was in half a mind to just pack up and leave right there._

_“Long day?”_

_She looked up at the voice. A blonde woman was sitting a few seats down from her at the counter. She had kind eyes and a sympathetic expression._

_“Yeah.”_

_“You’re Madi’s mom, right?” She smiled warmly._

_“Wow. I guess word gets around fast here.”_

_“It’s a small town,” she said apologetically. “But actually I know from Madi - I’m her teacher. It’s a nice thing you’re doing, travelling all the way here because she asked you to. Don’t mind Roan - he’s not so bad really, he just seems that way.”_

_“I don’t even know what I’m doing here,” Clarke admitted._

_A young guy approached, drying off glasses. “What can I get for you?”_

_“Scotch.”_

_He poured her one. “That’ll be six dollars, unless you’re starting a tab.”_

_“Put it on my tab, Nate, it’s on me,” Harper said to him, smiling as she moved seats, plonking down in the one right next to Clarke. “And pour me one too, would you?”_

_“Anything for you, Harp,” he grinned._

_“You don’t have to do that,” Clarke started, but she was already shaking her head._

_“You look like you need a friend,” she said._

* * *

_“_ _He was in a coma ten minutes ago!” Roan snapped._

_“And now he’s not,” the doctor said calmly. “But standing here yelling at me about it isn’t going to change the fact that Mr Green is now wandering around out there, probably disorientated and alone, and we need to find him and bring him back so he can be evaluated.”_

_Clarke frowned, looking over the empty room. There were framed photographs on the windowsill, so he’d clearly been there a long time. She inspected them, looking for any clues as to where he might have gone, and found one - a cabin by a lake in the background of one of the pictures. “Where is this?”_

_Roan looked at her like she was crazy for asking._

_“Outside town, through the forest,” Harper said helpfully._

_“You want to look for a sick man at the lake? There are a hundred places he would have gone before there!” Roan said._

_“It’s the best lead we’ve got, come on,” Clarke grabbed Harper’s hand and they strode from the room as Roan made disgruntled orders for the others to search the town._

_They drove in silence through the forest, Harper’s eyes glued out the window, until they reached the edge of the lake. They climbed out of the car and started walking along the grass, keeping clear of the water. They took turns calling out._

_“Monty Green?”_

_“Monty?”_

_“Monty Green, are you here?”_

_“Mon- is that him?” Harper asked suddenly, pointing. There was a man sitting on a rock, his feet soaking in the water as it rippled over them. She jogged over, Clarke at her heels, and approached him carefully. “Monty? Are you okay?”_

_“I… I don’t remember,” he said, eyes never leaving the lake. “I don’t remember anything except something to do with this lake. I thought coming here would fix it but I’m still… I don’t even know who I am.”_

_Harper sat down next to him. “Your name is Monty Green. You’re from here - we met last week, but you got into a car accident and you’ve been in a coma for five days.”_

_He blinked rapidly. “I, I don’t-”_

_“It’s okay,” she assured him, placing a hand on his knee. “I know this is a lot to come to terms with, but we want to help you. I want to help you. Which means we have to go back to the hospital for now, okay?”_

_He looked over at her, taking her in. “Whatever you say.”_

* * *

_Clarke put the last box down in the bare living room. The moving truck had travelled all the way from Chicago to Maine but hadn’t been able to find the town, so Cillian had given her a day off and she’d driven to the next town over to pick up her stuff, loading it into the back of Mr Miller’s delivery truck that he let her borrow._

_Some of the townsfolk had kindly helped her ferry things from the truck up the stairs - Jasper; who according to Madi was the Happy Dwarf from the stories, which honestly she could well believe, Zeke Shaw; who was Friar Tuck, although Madi had yet to discover Robin Hood in Storyborough, and Ryker; Doctor Hyde, apparently. Clarke tried to put Madi’s comparisons out of her head when she thanked them for helping her, but she couldn’t help but mentally compare them to their fictional counterparts as they left._

_She knew Jasper a little better than the rest, largely because he was close friends with Monty and therefore became close with Harper while she was trying to help him get his memories back, but she hadn’t spent much time with the other two. They left with smiles on their faces, refusing payment even when she offered, and she couldn’t help but think that she liked it here._

_Which was good because she’d just officially moved to town. Now all her things were here - it wasn’t much, but it was her whole life, stacked in boxes in her new apartment._

_“Clarke?” Madi said, peeking around the door before she entered._

_“Hey kid, come on in,” she sat down and started opening the nearest box. “Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us. How was school?”_

_“It was alright. Monty came by to talk to Harper during lunch, which is perfect because it means they’re actually trying to find each other.”_

_“You’re just a regular Emma Woodhouse, aren’t you?”_

_“Who’s that?”_

_“Haven’t gotten to Jane Austen yet?” Clarke grinned and jerked her chin at a pile of boxes. “It’s probably in one of those boxes if you wanna borrow it.”_

_Madi dropped her schoolbag by the door and flounced over to the pile, unstacking the boxes onto the floor. “There are so many stories in here. I wonder how many of them are like Storyborough?”_

* * *

_Clarke sobbed beside the hospital bed, completely devoid of solutions. After everything that had happened since arriving in the town, after growing to love Madi, after falling for Cillian only to see him die, after finally befriending Roan only for one of his old traps to catch Madi, it all felt like too much. She didn’t know what to do except sit beside her daughter and **hope**. She stroked Madi’s hair and kissed her forehead, and suddenly a shockwave blew through the room, outwards, blasting people as it went._

_Clarke pulled back, looking around to see Harper, Monty, and Doctor Jackson all standing there, blinking in confusion._

_“Monty?”_

_“Harper?”_

_“Is it really you?”_

_“I told you I’d find you,” he grinned. “Didn’t think it would take this long, but you’ve gotta give me credit for showing up.”_

_“Oh my god, I missed you,” she threw her arms around his neck and dragged him into a kiss and Clarke blinked in surprise._

_Madi’s eyes flew open and she sat up, pulling Clarke into a tight hug. Clarke reciprocated despite the tears rolling down her face. The three days Madi had been unconscious had been the hardest of her life - thinking her daughter would die, discovering magic was real, trying to find a cure for the poison - but she was safe._

_“What happened?” Madi asked into her shoulder._

_“True love, kid,” Clarke said. “I think I remember you saying something about that kind of love breaking curses.”_

_Madi giggled, hugging her harder, and a force hit Clarke from behind; four sets of arms wrapping around the two of them._

_“You did it,” Harper murmured in her ear._

_“You saved us all,” Monty said. “I knew you would.”_

_“My baby girl,” Harper sniffled._

_Clarke laughed, partly out of happiness but mostly out of shock. She had a family. Magic was real. Her parents were her own age. This was going to be weird._

* * *

_Clarke and Harper hit the ground in the forest._

_“What the hell was that?”_

_“A portal,” Harper explained, helping her to her feet. “Roan chucked us through it to protect us from the wraith, but I don’t think he meant to chuck us this far.”_

_“You think?” Clarke looked around. “Where the hell are we, anyway?”_

_“Well, I think we might be in my realm,” Harper admitted._

_“What makes you say that?”_

_“The sword,” she said, and Clarke’s head whipped around to find a curly-haired woman atop a horse, pointing a blade at Harper._

_“Who are you people and what are you doing here?” She asked, commanding._

_“I’m Harper and this is my daughter, Clarke.”_

_She frowned. “That woman is the same age as you.”_

_“I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks it’s weird,” Clarke muttered. “Look, we don’t want to get in your way or anything, we were thrown through a portal and now we need to find our way back home, do you have any idea how we could do that?”_

_The woman paused. “No. But I might know someone who does.”_

* * *

_“_ _You know, when you came into my shop looking for magic beans I never thought I would end up tied to a beanstalk,” Niylah said, irritated, as she strained against the rope that bound them all._

_“In my defence, neither did I,” Clarke said. “A few weeks ago I didn’t even **believe** in magic beans, or giants, or sorcery, or any of this.”_

_“That’s awfully naive of you,” Luna said._

_“It’s not her fault, it’s a long story,” Harper chimed in._

_“Feel free to tell it,” their captor said from where he was leaning against a tree, tapping his hook against his leg. “Nia and Shumway will be here soon to dispatch of you, so it may very well be the last story you tell.”_

_“Why are you working with them?” Clarke asked. “In my world, Hook is the captain of his own ship, his own crew, his own story - but you’re acting like a servant to someone else. Most of the stories I’ve heard at least **partially** align with the real people so why are you different?”_

_He glared at her. “I’m not working for Nia, I’m using her to serve my own goals.”_

_“Which are?”_

_“To get revenge on the man who took my hand, and to find my sister,” he said, gaze sharp as he locked eyes with her. He was telling the truth, that much was certain, and she wasn’t sure, but something behind his gaze told her that he wasn’t as accepting of the villains’ methods as his cavalier attitude would have them believe._

_“Well I’m trying to get home to my daughter,” she said, hoping her honesty would get them somewhere. “If you help us instead of her, we’d let you keep one of the beans, then you wouldn’t have to serve anyone.”_

_“I’m not serving anyone now,” he said._

_“Really? So tying us up and then hanging around to chat would be part of your plan if you were working alone?” She asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge._

_He narrowed his eyes at her, hand settling on the hilt of his sword. Stalked forward, pulling the sword from its scabbard, and lowered it to the rope around her middle. “Alright, Princess, let’s say you’re right. Why would I believe that you wouldn’t just betray me the second I set you free?”_

_“Because unlike you, I’m not a pirate,” she pointed out, “I keep my word.”_

_He thought it over. “Tell you what - you hand over one of the beans now and I’ll let you go.”_

_“You let us go, and I’ll give you one of the beans,” she countered._

_He smirked. “Brave Princess.”_

_It seemed like he was almost on her side, sword resting against the top of the ropes, when Nia appeared behind him, Shumway at the ready with two soldiers flanking them. Bellamy flicked the sword up to Clarke’s chin, holding it there, but he kept her gaze while he did; she wasn’t in any danger from him, at least not yet. “Your Majesty - I have them detained.”_

_“Did you get the beans?”_

_“Not yet.”_

_“Don’t send a pirate to do a witch’s job,” she muttered to herself, lifting a hand, but before she could do anything, the rope loosened around Clarke and the others. She looked around for the source of the escape only to see Luna dive across them, snatching her sword from the pile Bellamy had left it in. She rolled to her feet and held it up, ready for a fight. Clarke and Harper threw off the remaining rope and helped Niylah to her feet as Luna kicked their weapons to them._

_“Not so easy to capture us when we’re awake, is it?” Luna asked Bellamy mockingly, advancing on him._

_“You’re the ones who fell asleep under a beanstalk,” he retorted. “It’s like you **wanted** to be captured.”_

_“Kill her,” Nia said, pointing her soldiers towards Luna. “Shumway, get the beans off the shopkeeper. Bellamy, take the newcomer. Me and Snow White here have a score to settle.”_

_“You’re the only one who ever called me that, Nia,” Harper said, notching an arrow._

_“It’s actually pathetic that you think you can hit me with that,” she vanished as the arrow loosed, reappearing a few feet to the left._

_“You know, Roan has been so much better ever since he got out from under your thumb,” Harper said, readying another arrow. “He’s not a bad person - he never was - you just made him think it was all he was worth.”_

_“Save your fairytales for someone else, child.”_

_“That’s ironic,” Clarke muttered, and she heard an amused chuckle as a sword flicked into view, lifting her chin. This time, when she looked into Bellamy’s eyes, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t kill her._

_“You don’t seem to like fairytales much, Princess,” he said, smirking at her._

_“My name is Clarke,” she retorted. “And no, I don’t, but it’s not like I’ve had much luck with them so far.”_

* * *

_It seemed like she barely had time to catch her breath back in Storyborough before Russell was making her leave it again - thankfully within the same realm this time._

_The flight, sat between Russell and Madi, had been more than a little awkward, and the search for his son in the city hadn’t made the atmosphere any easier. The longer it took the more antsy he became until she finally snapped while they walked through a park towards their next destination._

_“Would you_ please _stop hounding me! We will find him, it’s not an instant process, you can’t just wave a hand and make it happen.”_

_He held up his hand. “I apologise. I simply wish to find my son and now we’re so close I feel like I could touch him and it’s getting the better of me. I will do better at holding my tongue.”_

_“Sounds unlikely,” someone said, and the three of them turned to find a man sitting on a park table, watching them._

_“Skai!” Russell said, shocked, at the same time as,_

_Finn?” Clarke gasped._

_“Clarke, what are you doing with my father?” Finn asked, getting down from the table._

_Russell’s head whipped around. “Clarke, you know my son?”_

_Clarke swallowed, stepping slightly in front of Madi. “Uh. Finn, **you’re** Skai?”_

_“I haven’t gone by that name for years,” he said, shooting a dark look at his father. “What the hell are you doing back in Los Angeles?”_

_“I’m looking for **you**.” The realisation hit her like a steam train. “Wait- did you **know**? The whole time, the entire time we were together, did you know?!”_

_He shook his head, reaching out to her. “No, no, I swear; I found out. Your friend Murphy paid me a visit and told me if I didn’t cut ties with you, everyone from our realm would be cursed forever. You had your own destiny to get to and I didn’t want to stand in the way.”_

_“That’s why you left me but that doesn’t explain why you betrayed me instead of just breaking it off. I went to **jail** Finn. For something I didn’t do. I thought you’d died, or worse.”_

_“And I am sorry for that,” he said. “But it looks like you found them.”_

_“You two dated?!” Russell yelled, disturbing the reunion. “And you never thought to mention it to me, Miss Griffin?”_

_She threw up her hands. “I didn’t know! You were asking me to look for Skai; I always knew him as Finn, and it’s not like I had a photo to go from. If I’d have known I…” she trailed off, glancing behind her at Madi before looking away, down at the ground. “I wouldn’t have...”_

_“What?” Russell asked, but Finn was a step ahead of him._

_He looked down at the girl, eyes wide. “Clarke. Is this… my daughter?”_

_She folded her arms. “Give me one good reason I should answer that?”_

_“Clarke…”_

_“You abandoned me, let me think you were dead-”_

_“Because I loved you!”_

_“Not good enough.”_

_He shook his head, looking back to Madi. “Clarke, please, I… is this my daughter?”_

_“Yes,” Madi answered for her. She’d clearly been doing the math on their own as they’d been talking, and she was determined, chin raised confidently as she spoke to the man. “But I don’t know you, so if you want to know me you should probably start being nice to my mom.”_

_“Yeah, you’re Clarke’s kid alright.” He choked out a laugh, tears trickling down his cheeks. “I promise you, I want nothing more than to be nice to your mom.”_

_“Good,” she said, stepping forward so she could hold her mother’s hand. “Start now.”_

_He laughed again, shaking his head in awe, and Russell clapped his hands. “Well, now that we’re all ready to play happy families, why don’t you explain to me how you got here? Now.”_

* * *

_Clarke ran down the street, headed for Lightbourne’s shop. She should have known that once Bellamy arrived in town it wouldn’t take long for him to discover Rumplestiltskin but honestly she’d kind of been hoping for more time._

_Foolish, really._

_Jasper had come to alert them when he saw Bellamy stalking towards the shop, but that was two long minutes ago, which meant the pirate had a headstart on them. She picked up the pace. Monty was hot on her heels, unwilling to let his daughter run headfirst into danger on her own, and they crashed through the doors of the shop together. The scene before them was dramatic - Bellamy’s right arm wrapped around Russell’s neck from behind, constricting his air, his hooked hand raised above them, ready to strike down on the man’s eye._

_“Hook!” Clarke yelled._

_He froze, plastering that familiar smirk across his face. “Hey Princess, you looking for some chipped teacups?”_

_“Put the evil man down,” she said sternly._

_“No can do, Princess, he killed Gina and he took my hand and I don’t have a third reason but honestly do I need one?”_

_He waited expectantly for her to answer and she sighed and took a single step closer. “You’re not a villain, Bellamy.”_

_He blinked. “What?”_

_“I know your circumstances have made you think you are, but you’re not. You’re just a guy who did whatever he had to in order to survive. You still have honour, you still care about people. Which is why you can’t kill Russell. If you kill him, you become just as bad and I don’t want to see that happen to you. I think- I **know** you can be better than that.”_

_“You can’t know that, Princess.”_

_“Yes I can. Because I believe that you have too much heart for this. Let him go. He’ll get his own; he’s a villain, and villains don’t get happy endings. But you still could,” she promised._

_He hesitated, hook still raised over Russell’s face, until finally he let go, shoving him to the floor. Monty ran forward to drag Russell out of the way, but Bellamy wasn’t going to attack him again, Clarke could see it in his eyes. He sighed. “You’re lucky you’re pretty, Princess.”_

* * *

_Clarke and Roan, despite putting their differences aside in order to run the town, kept butting heads over the way they raised Madi together. Roan admitted Madi was like a niece to him more than a daughter, but he loved her all the same and he didn’t want to stop spending time with her just because Clarke was back in her life full-time._

_“You have a right, as her parent, to do whatever you wish,” Wells reminded her._

_She was sitting on his couch while he made her a cup of tea. “I knew that, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty when I realise I’ve planned something that gets in the way of Madi’s time with Roan.”_

_“Screw Roan-”_

_“Like you want to?”_

_“Don’t psychoanalyse me, I’m the town shrink,” he complained, but he grinned as he brought over the drinks. “Besides, you didn’t come over to probe me about my feelings, you came over to vent.”_

_“Would you rather I booked a session so you actually got paid to listen to my crap?”_

_He snorted. “Honestly I really love that you like me as a friend instead of a therapist. It means I get to vent right back to you when you’re done.”_

_She laughed, sipping her tea. “Fair enough.”_

_“Is the Roan thing really what’s bothering you, or is it something else?” Wells asked, surveying her clinically._

_She bit her lip. “Finn’s back in town.”_

_“Yes, he is.”_

_“I don’t know how to feel about it.”_

_“You don’t have to **know** how you feel about things all the time,” he pointed out. “Are they good feelings or bad feelings?”_

_“Both, I think.”_

_“Do you still love him?”_

_She swallowed. “I don’t know.”_

_“Is he going to stick around?”_

_“He wants to be in Madi’s life, so probably.”_

_“Then you should play it by ear,” he said sagely. “If he’s going to be around for a while then you have time to unjumble your feelings and work out what you want.”_

_The tea swirled around her cup as she moved the saucer and she watched it, captivated, as she mulled over his words. “When did you get so wise?”_

_“What can I say, it’s a cricket thing,” he winked._

_She laughed. “Okay, your turn - what’s the deal with your crush on Roan?”_

* * *

_“I’m commandeering your ship,” Clarke grabbed Bellamy’s arm and started dragging him towards the docks. Harper, Monty, Finn, Lightbourne and Roan all jogged out of Miller’s, looking around until they saw her, and they began following her as one._

_Bellamy glanced at them over his shoulder but he was clearly distracted by the harsh grip on his arm. He didn’t try to pull away, he just let her lead him, frowning, “What, why?”_

_“Because my daughter just got dragged through a portal and I need to find her. How do I steer?”_

_“Why would you need to know that?”_

_“Because I need to steer your ship,” she said, confused at his deliberate ignorance._

_“Sorry, what I meant was - why would you need to know that when I’m coming with you?”_

_“You don’t need to do that-”_

_“Don’t flatter yourself, Princess, I’m not doing it for you, I’m doing it for my ship. I don’t trust her in anyone’s hands but my own, and I’m definitely not risking her in the hands of a novice,” he shot her a look, and there was something behind it that Clarke would have noticed if she’d been paying more attention._

_Instead, she looked back at the group of people following them. “You all coming?”_

_“Of course!” Monty cried out. “This is Madi we’re talking about, you’re lucky the entire village isn’t trying to board the ship.”_

_“That would be the day,” Bellamy muttered exasperatedly as they reached the gangplank. “Alright, where exactly are we going?”_

_Roan met his eye, “Neverland.”_

_A muscle in Bellamy’s jaw twitched, but he didn’t say anything as he boarded **The Caduceus.** Instead he strode right to the helm without a second thought, and Monty unhooked it from the pier so Bellamy could slowly guid the ship out of the docks, pointing it towards the horizon._

_Harper tossed a magic bean ahead of them, opening up a portal._

_“Second star on the right…” Clarke muttered._

_“...and straight on til morning,” Bellamy finished for her, staring straight ahead as the portal engulfed them and they disappeared into the nothingness._

* * *

_Clarke hadn’t thought about the fact that Neverland was the story Hook was from until the boat finally touched down on shore, in a cove that Bellamy seemed intimately familiar with. It struck her as needlessly cruel that she’d dragged him back to a place he clearly didn’t want to be, but he’d volunteered, and she knew that if she said anything he’d just brush her off anyway._

_“How does it feel to be home, Hook?”_

_Or Finn could just bulldoze the situation. Clarke dropped her head into her hand as she walked, sharing a glance with Monty._

_“You know, Finn, I think I liked you better before you moved to Los Angeles,” Bellamy muttered. “At least when you were an annoying kid on this island you weren’t a jackass.”_

_“Well, when I was an annoying kid on this island, you abandoned me so forgive me for not being as welcoming as the others,” he replied._

_“I didn’t abandon you, you ran away in the middle of the night and then I got a lead on my sister and made my escape. You know the only reason I came here in the first place was to find her, and you knew that I’d been waiting for an opportunity to leave for weeks; it’s not my fault that you disappeared, I wasn’t your father. Thank god,” he said, shooting a glare at Russell, who smiled smarmily back._

_“Still, you should have looked for me,” Finn said._

_“I did! You weren’t anywhere, and then Pan attacked and I knew that was the moment to go.”_

_“You were my friend.”_

_“And **you** left,” Bellamy repeated. “Don’t blame that on me.”_

_Clarke rolled her eyes and forged ahead through the undergrowth, trying to block them out. Monty kept in step with her, nudging her conspiratorially. “So, have you had a chance to talk to him yet?”_

_“Who?”_

_“Finn.”_

_“There’s nothing to talk about, Dad,” she said, eyes darting everywhere, keeping alert._

_“He’s the father of your child, he betrayed you, you thought he died, now he’s back and you don’t have anything to say to him?” Monty tutted. “Clarke, I know I wasn’t there to teach you to walk but you cannot have missed the part of life where you learn not to bottle up your feelings. And if you have, I’m here to unbottle them right now.”_

_“Right now might not be such a good idea,” Clarke lifted a branch so they could duck under it. “Seeing as we’re on a mission to save my daughter, in Neverland, with my not-dead ex, a pirate, a once-evil warlock, my parents who are the same age as me, and Rumplestiltskin.”_

_“Point taken,” Monty snorted. “But you know you can talk to me about these things, right? I might be your age, but I’m still your father and I want you to know I’m here for whatever you need.”_

_Clarke nodded and he squeezed her arm as they walked, ever-forward, through the forest. Behind them, Finn and Bellamy were still bickering, and Roan was having a hushed conversation with Russell, but Clarke wasn’t paying attention to any of it. Something about the green made her uncomfortable which was odd because Clarke usually loved the wild. But it felt eerie - like they were being watched, wherever they went._

* * *

_“_ _Finn, move!” Bellamy yelled, tackling him to the floor as a poison arrow sailed towards him._

_The arrow caught Bellamy’s arm instead of hitting Finn’s chest, and the fight faltered in a single moment as Clarke looked over, seeing the blood drip to his elbow. Josephine, from her place on top of the hill, waved a hand and all the Lost Ones vanished._

_“Interesting,” she tilted her head in fascination. “When did you get so selfless, Hook?”_

_“Go to hell, Pan,” he muttered, pushing himself up on his knees._

_“Ah, I see,” she grinned, malicious intent all over her face. “Not selfless then. Get yourself some new friends did you? Trying to make a good impression?”_

_“Leave them alone,” he panted, trying to get to his feet and stumbling against the nearest tree. He held himself up, arm shaking, and looked her in the eye. “It’s me you have the vendetta against, not them. Just take me.”_

_“Aw, but why would I do that when you’ve taken all the fun out of it? Dying playthings aren’t good toys for very long,” she said glibly, right before she blinked out of existence._

_Clarke ran forward, hands hovering around Bellamy as she surveyed him, unsure if she could touch him or not. “What do we do, how do we fix this?”_

_“You don’t,” Russell said. “He’s done for.”_

_“No,” Clarke shook her head._

_“It’s nightshade, it’s incurable,” he shrugged, looking particularly unbothered by the steadily weakening pirate in front of them. “Pan’s right, he’ll be gone in a matter of minutes.”_

_“Clarke-” Finn started, putting a hand on her shoulder, but she shook him off._

_“No,” she repeated. “Bellamy, you lived here longer than anyone - what do we do?”_

_“Nothing, Princess,” he flashed her a grin before he doubled over in pain, sliding to the floor. “I’m fine.”_

_She crouched in front of him. “You’re not fine.”_

_“No, really, I am,” he groaned, tilting his head back. “Like you said, I lived here - I know all her tricks. I spent years building up an immunity to the poison. My blood is strong enough to keep me alive. But that doesn’t mean this is going to be pleasant. It fucking hurts.”_

_“Really?” Harper asked, sounding relieved._

_“Better me going through a few hours of torture than one of you dying, right?” Bellamy clutched at his stomach, swallowing violently. “Even you, Finn.”_

_“Thank you, Bellamy,” Finn said. “I mean it, you didn’t have to do that.”_

_“I know,” he grunted. “Someone remind me not to try this hero shit again, it’s agony.”_

_“Deal,” Roan said, slinging one of Bellamy’s arms over his shoulder and lifting him up. Monty took the other side. “Now can you think of anywhere nearby where we could make camp for the night? I’m pretty tired of fighting pre-teens.”_

_“There’s a cave about a half-mile from here, we should be safe there - there are mermaids in the lake beside it and even Pan doesn’t mess with the mermaids,” Bellamy’s head started to loll as he drifted towards unconsciousness._

_“I know which cave he’s talking about, I can get us there,” Finn pushed to the front and began leading the way through the forest._

_Clarke stayed close to Monty, occasionally making eye contact with Roan who kept raising his eyebrows in a way she didn’t understand but was too tired to grill him on. When they arrived at the cave, they propped Bellamy up in the corner and Harper went to fetch some water from the lake - “because mermaids and I have a history and I’d rather go than see one of you get hurt” - and Monty offered to take first watch._

_Clarke lay down, using a flat rock as a kind of pillow, and barely had a chance to recognise how uncomfortable it was before she fell asleep._

_When she woke, it was to Roan shaking her - her shift for keeping watch. It was the early hours of the morning, still almost no light outside the mouth of the cave, and she stood there, looking out over the reflected crescent moon on the lake and thought about her daughter. About how scared she must be, how alone she would feel. Clarke had never wanted Madi to feel any of that._

_“We’re gonna find her,” a hoarse voice said from behind, making her jump._

_“You should try and get some more rest, you need it,” she said._

_Bellamy shrugged as he came to stand beside her. “The poison has passed through my system, I’m wide awake. I could take this shift if you want, let you sleep?”_

_“No, I… I’m awake now, I’d rather keep watch. It makes me feel like I’m doing something,” she muttered, ducking her head._

_“You are doing something,” he said seriously._

_“I know. It just feels like we’re getting nowhere.”_

_“Welcome to Neverland,” he said sardonically, a note of bitterness to his voice._

_She glanced at him - he looked a little paler than usual, a little weak on his feet, but otherwise fine. “I heard you say earlier you came here to look for your sister.”_

_“Yeah. She was a Lost One once. She escaped before I arrived. I got stuck here, but while I was, I used every opportunity I could to seek her out and when I realised she was gone I went a little crazy. I started looking for clues in everything we saw, and Pan used that to mess with me.”_

_“She’s one nasty piece of work,” Clarke said, angry on his behalf._

_He shrugged. “Eventually I did find the right clue and I used my last magic bean to escape - which was why by the time I met you, I had teamed up with Shumway and Nia to find another one, to keep chasing the trail. There isn’t much I won’t do for the people I love.”_

_“How about Finn?”_

_“Less so,” he deadpanned, flashing a grin at her._

_“But you took a bullet for him anyway,” she said, turning slightly to see him better as the sun began to break through the curtain of trees. “Don’t look now, Bellamy, but I think you’re becoming a hero.”_

_“That’s the last thing I am, Princess,” he said, amusement fading._

_She could see the self-loathing clawing its way back into his expression and she didn’t have anything to say that would push it back to where it had come from, so instead, she grabbed him by the lapels and dragged his mouth to hers._

_He reacted immediately, kissing her back with more passion than she expected, hooked arm sliding around her waist to keep her close while his right hand cupped her cheek, thumb brushing soothingly over her skin as a stark contrast to the fires he was lighting with his lips._

_When they broke apart, gasping into each other’s air, he shook his head a little, confusion setting in, and she stepped away from him. His arms dropped to his sides._

_“Heroes get to kiss the girls,” she said, breathless, and an understanding settled between them - this was a one-time thing. “Get some sleep Bellamy, I got this.”_

_“As you wish, Princess,” he said, ducking his head as he passed so she couldn’t make out his expression._

_That was probably a very bad idea, but as she watched the sun come up, her heart couldn’t stop beating a rhythm she didn’t recognise, and she couldn’t quite bring herself to regret the kiss._

* * *

_Clarke hadn’t expected Tinkerbell to be a man, but the more time she spent with Wick, the more sense it made. He was surprisingly cheery considering he was stuck on a maze of an island, with no magic, controlled by an evil immortal, and he scribbled spell ideas on his arms as they walked._

_He was also the first to realise what spell Pan wanted to cast, and why she needed Madi; it was a spell to control time in **every** realm, not just her own - making her a god in every version of reality. And in order to complete it, Josephine needed **black blood.**_

_That was why she’d ordered her mortal lackey to drag Madi to Neverland - because in order to create the kind of spell she needed, black blood was the most important ingredient. And it was hereditary, so only Russell, Finn and Madi had it, which meant Madi was the easiest target. No-one went after the Dark One with any degree of success, and it was lucky for Finn that she hadn’t realised he was related to her until after he escaped the island._

_She also needed the moon to eclipse in order for the spell to be performed, so they had exactly an hour to release Madi from her cage and get the hell out of there, but unfortunately, Josephine had put a contingency in place._

_The cage was in the middle of a giant chasm with no way of getting to it._

_“What are we supposed to do?” Roan asked, looking around for any way of bridging the gap._

_“Don’t look at me, without fairy dust I can’t fly,” Wick shrugged. He took another look at the chasm, creeping up towards the edge and kicking some dirt over it. “Hey Blake, does this look familiar to you?”_

_“Shit.” Bellamy muttered. “This is the Cave of Lost Secrets.”_

_“What? What is it, how do we get to her?” Clarke asked urgently._

_Bellamy groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. “We reveal a secret.”_

_“What?”_

_“Pan likes to play games and I’ve seen this one before - you have to reveal your most closely guarded secret in order to reach the thing you want. The last time I came across one of these, I failed. I never got to the thing I was seeking.”_

_“The Cave of Secrets is not her creation - it’s part of the island, always has been even before she arrived - it’s ancient; Old Magic, the kind that even she can’t cheat. Which means we can’t either.” Wick explained as he raised a hand, volunteering himself. “I’ll go first. Bellamy, I lied to you last time you were here; I did know your sister.”_

_Bellamy snapped the twig he was holding. “You fucking **what**?”_

_He winced. “We were constantly on-again-off-again and I didn’t know how to tell you that I’d helped your sister get off the island. Half the time I was worried you would leave immediately if I told you and the other half I just didn’t trust that you had good motives. It was how I lost the last of my fairy dust; I gave it to Octavia.”_

_“I’m going to kill you,” he growled, and then the ground rumbled beneath their feet and the beginnings of a pathway started to appear in the ravine._

_Roan stepped forward. “Save the murder for after we save the kid, okay? My secret is that I didn’t cast the curse to get revenge on anyone. I cast it to get away from my mother and the damage she was doing to the kingdom. Playing the villain just made it easier to get everyone to rally against something.”_

_The ground rumbled again._

_“Holy shit, are you serious?” Harper grinned. “I knew I liked you for a reason.”_

_“It’s not my charm and washboard abs?”_

_“That’s my wife you’re talking to,” Monty reminded him, shaking his head in mock-disappointment. “Okay, here goes… I want another kid.”_

_Harper froze mid-smile. “What?”_

_“I love our daughter,” he looked to Clarke reassuringly, “but we missed all the firsts, all the teaching moments, all the growth. I’m proud of the woman she’s become but I never got to see her becoming it. Also she looks way more like you, and I want a kid that looks like me.”_

_Clarke snorted, but Harper was blinking rapidly, trying to hold back tears._

_“That was my secret too,” she admitted._

_The rocks shook beneath them and more of the pathway appeared. They were so close, and Madi was straining at the bars of the cage, sticking her arms through to show them she was there._

_“My turn,” Bellamy said, looking uncharacteristically nervous. He shifted his weight restlessly and pointedly didn’t look at Clarke when he spoke. “Clarke and I kissed.”_

_“What?!” Finn yelped, glaring between them. “You told me you weren’t flirting!”_

_Clarke grimaced and turned away from him, trying to catch Bellamy’s eye instead. “It was a kiss, Bellamy, that’s not exactly a secret. I already told Harper and Roan.”_

_“I’m going to kill you,” Monty said quietly._

_“Though obviously I hadn’t gotten around to telling Monty yet.”_

_“Come on man, I thought we were friends now,” Bellamy pleaded._

_“Just because I like you as a person does not mean that you - or any person living or dead - are good enough for my daughter.” Monty directed the last part to the entire cohort, glaring at each and every one of them in turn. Finn looked indignant, while Roan and Wick both just shrugged in acknowledgement. Russell turned up his nose._

_Bellamy nodded. “Fair enough.” He finally lifted his head, making eye contact with Clarke. “It’s my secret because… I like you, Princess. Since Gina died I’ve tried to keep that part of myself locked up, and I was doing just fine until you came along. I know you don’t feel the same way, and I’m fine with that, but when I’m around you I feel like I could learn to love again.”_

_The floor beneath Clarke’s feet quaked but she barely noticed, too busy trying to absorb those words. She wanted to say something, the right thing to put him at ease, to tell him she could see herself falling for him as well, but before she could, Finn opened his mouth._

_“Well that makes my admission a little awkward,” he reached for Clarke’s hand. She shook herself out of her stupor in time to see Finn nodding to himself before he said, “Because I’m still in love with you.”_

_Oh for the love of-_

_“I never stopped. Even when I left I couldn’t make myself give you up, because I love you, Clarke.”_

_She looked down at her hand in his as the final piece of the pathway roared into place. She didn't have time to deal with this, she needed to save her daughter._

_“Mom!” Madi yelled._

_“I’m coming kid!” She called back, wrenching her hand from Finn’s and sprinting - probably a little too recklessly - across the ravine until she reached the cage. Madi gripped her fingers through the bars, but Clarke knew the rules by now; there was no way out of there unless she told her secret. Madi’s eyes were wide, unblinking, and Clarke felt her bottom lip wobble as she prepared to tell her darkest secret. “I love you so much, Madi. I promise you, I will always love you more than any other thing in the world. But sometimes… sometimes I wish you’d never come and found me. My life was empty before you turned up on my door, but in a lot of ways it was easier; there was no-one around to disappoint, and no-one I cared enough about to risk anything for. There’s a tiny part of me, a really, really selfish part, that wants to go back to that.”_

_The cage melted away and Madi threw herself at her, hugging her so tight she couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t care. She held her daughter close, crying into her shoulder and whispering ‘I love you’ over and over again until they pulled apart._

_“You have never disappointed me,” Madi whispered._

_“Give it time, kid,” she said, only half-joking, and the two of them walked back across the bridge to where everyone was waiting._

_Harper and Monty hugged her together, then Finn, then Roan, and Bellamy ruffled her hair while Russell simply nodded at her, as repressed as ever._

_“Who’s that?” Madi pointed to Wick._

_“Tinkerbell,” Roan said. At her confused look, he shrugged. “No time to explain right now, we need to get back to the ship before Pan realises you’re gone.”_

_“Too late,” Russell said, head tilted to the sky._

_Josephine was hovering there, staring down at them all with malice and glee in her eyes. “Oh good, you’re all in one place - that’ll make it easier to kill you.”_

_She threw a wave of energy towards them, knocking them all towards the edge of the cliff as the bridge melted away, no longer required. Clarke scrambled to her feet, pushing Madi behind her, and Josephine tutted, amused._

_“It’s so cute that you think that’s gonna do any good,” she waved her hand again and Madi screamed._

_Clarke turned to see a Lost One dragging her back into the darkness, and she started to run after them only for two Lost Ones to slam her into the ground. Roan tried to get through them but another three appeared out of nowhere and tackled him, halting him in his tracks as he tried to throw them off. The others were all fending off the small army as well, barring Russell who seemed to be facing off against Josephine on his own - and losing._

_Clarke was on the floor, trying rabidly to get back to her daughter, but the Lost Ones had her pinned, and everyone else was stuck too. They were going to lose her again, and Clarke wanted to yell and cry and break everything she could get her hands on but all she could do was struggle helplessly on the ground._

_Madi was still screaming, fighting to get back to her family, and something inside Clarke cracked._

_She felt her insides growing hot, like a match had been lit in her chest. She threw her arms out, pushing the Lost Ones off, and as she did, a wave of energy pulsed through her, launching the two of them into the air._

_That was new._

_She looked up just in time to see Josephine’s surprise before Russell took advantage of it, sending a knife towards her. She ducked before it hit her, but that had gotten closer than anything else, and Russell met Clarke’s eye, a plan forming. She knew immediately what he was thinking, and summoned another huge bolt of energy, sending it rippling through the air. As it hit each Lost One, they vanished into nothing, displaced to a different part of the island._

_The ones holding Madi disappeared and she ran back over, barrelling into Clarke._

_Josephine’s eye twitched with rage and she lifted her arms, readying to deal a killing blow to the nearest person, who happened to be Monty._

_Clarke didn’t know how she knew what to do, but she did - she looked to Russell, “Get them to the ship, now!”_

_“Clarke, no!” Harper yelled, but she was too late._

_“I’m right behind you,” Clarke promised._

_Russell snapped his fingers and then everyone vanished. It was just Clarke and Josephine in the Cave of Lost Secrets, circling each other._

_“You think you’re so cute, don’t you? With your new magic and your heteronormative love triangle - well I’ve got some news for you, **Princess** , none of that shit matters when you’re dead,” Josephine threw a dagger of shadows at her._

_Clarke blocked it with a shield of light, sending the blade ricocheting off the walls._

_“I mean, really, what do all these people see in you?” Pan barely blinked at the wave of energy Clarke sent towards her, batting it away with the swipe of a hand. “The body, sure, I understand, but what is so enticing about your personality? I just don’t get it.”_

_Clarke dove away from the next volley of shadows, panting as she rolled to her feet. “Do you ever… stop… talking?”_

_“Why would I?” She asked, throwing out her own wall of energy that sent Clarke skidding backwards - towards the edge of the cliff._

_Which gave Clarke an idea._

_The Cave of Secrets was Old Magic - the kind that even Pan couldn’t cheat._

_**Perfect**._

_She let Josephine keep pushing her towards the huge chasm until she was teetering on her heels. Josephine smirked, smug. “Did the pretty princess really think she could take me?”_

_“You’re insufferable,” Clarke grunted, trying to give the impression she was really trying._

_“You’re losing,” Josephine said, flicking her finger, and the energy hit Clarke hard._

_She soared into the air, falling towards the empty space below, where there was no floor to be seen, and she grabbed the energy around her and harnessed just enough of it to change her trajectory, landing on the pillar in the center of the cave. She laughed. “Not losing yet.”_

_Josephine leapt up into the air, landing gracefully on the pillar just two feet from Clarke. “Just give up and let me kill you, it’ll be so much less painful for you.”_

_“I don’t think so,” Clarke said, moving one more step backwards._

_Josephine followed, taking another step, and Clarke stomped, just once, melding her magic with the Old Magic beneath her feet: channelling it into the ground. It folded together, rising back up, and a cage melted into being, forming around Josephine before she had a chance to stop it. She looked around at the bars, trying to break through them with bursts of magic, and when she realised she was stuck, a high-pitched screeching noise escaped her mouth._

_Clarke grinned. “Cat got your tongue?”_

_“Bitch,” Josephine hissed. “Let me out!”_

_“Why on earth would I do that? I’m winning,” Clarke winked._

_She snapped her fingers and disapparated from the cave, landing on a familiar wooden deck. Footsteps rushed over and then she was being hauled into a bearhug by at least four different sets of arms. She blinked, reorienting herself, and noticed Bellamy standing at the helm, hands gripping the wheel abnormally tight as he met her eye, relief flashing across his expression. Finn, Harper, Madi and Monty released her and she looked down to them, smiling._

_“What happened?”_

_“Are you okay?”_

_“Did you kill her?”_

_“She’s trapped. I’ll explain later,” Clarke promised. “For now, let’s just get out of here.”_

_“As you wish, Princess,” Bellamy said, turning the wheel towards the horizon once more. They left Neverland behind them, watching as it faded into the distance, and Monty didn’t pull out a magic bean until it had completely disappeared. He tossed it in front of them and as the ship dropped into the portal, Clarke found herself thinking about the secrets told in cave, and what they meant for the future._

* * *

_Clarke had just arrested a petty thief and was in a pretty terrible mood when Finn swung by to offer to buy her lunch._

_“I’m really not in the mood today,” she said, slumping down at her desk._

_There was a short silence while Finn chewed that statement over before he decided to ignore it. “Look, I know this probably isn’t the time and I had hoped to do this over lunch, but I came here to say something.”_

_She sat up. “Yes?”_

_“When we were in the Cave of Secrets a few weeks ago, I told you I loved you, and we never talked about it. I understand we were all settling back into things, and then some more incidents came up, but I had hoped we would discuss it at some point. Discuss what it means.”_

_“What it means?” she asked, confused._

_“Yeah. How we’re going to move forward.”_

_She scrunched up her nose in bewilderment. “I don’t understand.”_

_“I love you,” he said again. “And I think we should get back together.”_

_Oh._

_Right._

_“Oh. Right.” Clarke said dumbly. “Well, uh, thank you, for that…” she wracked her brains for a suitable answer and came up depressingly empty. But she was far too grumpy and tired to just stop talking and hold the conversation for another day, so instead she ended up say, “I don’t.”_

_His face fell. “You don’t?”_

_She groaned, rubbing her eyebrow where a headache was beginning to form. “No, I really don’t. It took me a long time to get over you and honestly it’s a really hard thing to come back from. I think we could be friends some day soon, but being together again, back where we were? It’s just never gonna happen.”_

_“So that’s it, the conversation’s over, we’re just done?” Finn crossed his arms defensively._

_“Yeah, we’re done,” she said, perhaps a little too coldly, but it got the job done - he spun on his heel and stormed from the station._

_“Wow that was way harsh man,” the thief in the cell said._

_“Shut up, Riley.”_

* * *

_Apparently, Storyborough couldn’t last even a month between world-shattering catastrophes, because another curse was rolling its way towards them and they had exhausted all of their options._

_Nia had managed to claw her way back into their realm just so she could cast a curse that would drag Storyborough back to hers, settling herself as queen once more._

_Everyone would be affected - everyone except Clarke and Madi._

_If they couldn’t stop the curse, Clarke wanted to go with them, to take Madi, but nothing they did managed to bind the two of them to the curse the way the rest of them were. Now, the rolling purple smoke was visible on the horizon and there was nothing they could do._

_They had to run now, or who knew what would happen to the two of them when the entire town blinked from existence, but Clarke couldn’t make herself leave the empty Sheriff’s office. She’d found herself here. She’d found her **family** here. She wasn’t ready to let it go._

_“Clarke,” Bellamy appeared in the doorway, sympathy in his eyes. “Your parents are looking for you. They want to say goodbye.”_

_She shook her head, fighting back tears. “I can’t.”_

_“Yes you can,” he stepped closer. “I’ve seen you in action, Princess, you can do anything.”_

_“I can’t say goodbye, Bellamy, I…” she closed her eyes. “I can’t. It’s killing me, I… I never had anyone to lose before and now it’s like I’m losing **everything**.”_

_He moved into her space, sliding his hand around her shoulder to steady her. “I know. But if you don’t say goodbye, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. You’ve got to go, Princess, and you’ve got to tell your family you love them before you do.”_

_She looked up at him, blinking tears off her lashes, and he swayed closer, before tipping back like he remembered himself. But she didn’t want him to remember that they weren’t supposed to be this close. She wanted him to be closer - and before she could remind herself of all the reasons it was a bad idea, she pushed up on her toes and kissed him._

_He kissed back for barely a few seconds before he pulled away, brows knitted together. “What are you doing?”_

_“I thought you liked surprises,” she teased, trying to lighten the mood, but it didn’t work._

_“Clarke… I don’t want you to kiss me just because you’re upset and you need a distraction. And maybe you’re not, maybe you mean it, but I can’t let you do this right now, okay? It feels too much like taking advantage,” he murmured, brushing her hair from her face with the backs of his fingers. When she opened her mouth to protest he offered a wry smile. “Besides, I’m pretty sure if you kissed me again I wouldn’t be able to let you leave.”_

_She giggled despite the tears running down her cheeks, and wrapped her fingers around his hook. “The next time we see each other, ask me out. I promise I’ll say yes.”_

_He smiled, but it was bittersweet - they both knew they were never going to see each other again._

_They walked outside, only to be met with a crowd so large it could only be the entire town. A cheer went up as Bellamy nudged her forward and people reached for her hands to shake them, to thank her for everything she’d done for them, until finally she was through to the other side where her little old car was parked with Madi sitting cross-legged on the bonnet._

_Roan appeared in front of her. “Let me do you a favour. Your memories of this place and these people will be gone, but let me make sure your new memories are good ones.”_

_“You’d do that?”_

_“For you two? Anything,” he promised, and when he hugged her, she knew he meant it. She moved past him but she still couldn’t get to the car because her closest friends, her family, were standing in her way, saying goodbye to Madi and holding their arms out to her._

_Jasper cried when he went to hug her, choosing to high-five her instead._

_Wick and Miller both followed his example and fist-bumped her._

_Finn squeezed her hand and told her there were no hard feelings between them._

_Wells side-hugged her._

_Murphy kissed her forehead and squeezed her shoulder the way only a life-long friend could._

_And then Harper and Murphy were cuddling her like their lives depended on it and she sobbed into their arms, never wanting to let them go. She would have happily stayed in the cocoon of their unfaltering love forever. But the curse was almost at the town line and she needed to get Madi to safety._

_They let go first, Monty’s arm wrapping around his wife’s waist as the two of them cried, watching her usher Madi into the car. As they drove away, Clarke’s gaze kept flicking to the rear view mirror, watching them standing in the road as the wall of purple smoke loomed over them. Her heart was breaking._

_And then the curse crashed down and she was driving along a road with her daughter, tears mysteriously on her cheeks as Madi sang along to the radio. She wiped the saltwater away, uncaring, and made a left towards the highway._

* * *

Clarke stumbled, the force of the memories knocking her off balance, and Bellamy’s arms came around her, holding her up. She blinked rapidly as they slotted back into place, tilting her head to see him, _really see him,_ for the first time in over a year.

“Bellamy,” she murmured.

“Hey Princess,” he said softly, brushing her hair out of her eyes in a gesture that felt oddly reminiscent of one of the memories still trying to find its place in her head. “Good to have you back.”

“You’re really here,” she couldn’t keep the emotion out of her voice, terrified he was a figment of her imagination. He nodded, face dipping closer, nose almost brushing hers before he cleared his throat and stepped back.

“We’ll have time to catch up later, right now we need to get back to Storyborough,” he said, voice gruffer than usual.

She shook off her dizziness and planted her feet more firmly on the ground. “I’m going to pack and wake up Madi, take my keys and bring the car around front.”

“You’re so lucky Monty taught me to drive,” Bellamy deadpanned.

“Yet another thing my father was never able to teach me, so I’m glad he got the opportunity with someone,” she joked back, and his smile was _glowing_ , like her teasing attitude was enough to bring it home to him that she really was back. He snagged her keys off the counter and left the apartment while she jogged into her bedroom to pack a suitcase. She didn’t need much, just enough to last until they got back to her old apartment - she could send off for the rest of it later.

Once she had a bag together, she woke Madi up.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Madi asked blearily, looking at the clock. “It’s after midnight.”

“I can’t explain right now, but we need to go,” Clarke said, throwing some of her clothes into the suitcase on top of her own.

Madi started getting dressed. “Okay.”

Once Clarke was sure they had everything they needed, she grabbed Madi’s hand and they left the apartment. They took the elevator down to the street to find Bellamy leaning against her car.

“Who’s that?”

“Uh, he’s the reason we’re leaving,” Clarke explained. “He’s an old friend and he’s got a case for me, a really big one.”

“Is he paying?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s go,” Madi climbed into the backseat.

Bellamy frowned. “When did she get so cynical?”

“Don’t ask,” Clarke said tiredly. “It’ll get better once she gets her memory back, right?”

“Hope so,” he said, tossing her the keys. “Ready to go home, Princess?”

She caught them and sat down in the driver’s seat, putting it into gear as he slid into shotgun. “Can’t wait.”

“That’s the Clarke I know,” he was watching her, she could see it in the corner of her eye as she pulled out onto the road. “I’ve missed her.”

“Me too,” she smiled, gunning it towards the highway as fast as the speed limit would allow.

* * *

Storyborough was exactly as she remembered it - something of a miracle since she only remembered it the night before - and she parked in her old spot in front of the police station.

“Bellamy, can you take Madi and find my parents? I’m going to look for Roan and the others.”

They parted ways, Madi following the pirate like a lost puppy, and Clarke headed for Miller’s Diner.

It was busy, and she didn’t recognise half the faces in there, but one of them recognised her. Nathan and Mr Miller were both serving at the bar, but David was facing away from her, and Nate looked up when the door jingled and immediately dropped a glass on the floor. He didn’t even seem to notice it smash, too busy jumping over the counter so he could hug her, twirling her around in excitement.

“Clarke!” Mr Miller gasped when he took stock of the commotion. “How did you get here? How did you know? How long have you been here?”

“Let the woman have a moment to get her bearings,” one of the strangers said, clapping Nathan on the shoulder. “Put her down, Miller, she can’t breathe.”

Clarke’s feet returned to the ground and she smiled breathlessly at the woman. “Thanks. I’m Clarke, I’m-”

“Oh we know who you are,” she smiled, a twinkle in her eye. “I’m Emori. I guess you’d probably know me as Will Scarlet, and this is Raven Reyes - Robin Hood.”

Raven stepped forward, hand outstretched, and Clarke shook it, a tiny bit awestruck. “Wow,” she said, surprised. “Cool.”

“We were in a different kingdom when the original curse hit, but when this one came it took the entire realm with it, so here we are,” Emori lifted a shoulder noncommittally. “It’s been an adjustment, but you’ve got Netflix here, so.”

“And I’m a big fan of gunpowder,” Raven added, flashing a wolfish grin.

“I like you,” Clarke said.

“Most of us do,” Miller agreed, bumping Emori’s shoulder and jerking his chin at Raven as he returned to the bar. He glanced back over his shoulder. “Roan’ll be here any minute, but I can send a message down the phone tree, call a town meeting?”

“Already done, son,” Mr Miller said, putting the phone back in its cradle.

“Good to see you Mr Miller,” she smiled at him.

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me David?”

“Never gonna happen,” she winked, and then she was hit by a tornado. Except it wasn’t a tornado, it was Wick and Jasper; a flurry of limbs that leapt into her and sent her reeling into a vacant table. She laughed as she righted herself. “Hey boys.”

“We missed you!” Jasper said, punching her in the arm like it was her choice to leave.

She didn’t realise initially, but there were a few people with them who hadn’t felt the need to jump her into order to get their feelings across. Wells and Murphy both pulled her into meaningful hugs, and a few other people she recognised - Shaw, Ryker, Riley - shook her hand before finding seats. The last person to reach her was Finn, who wrapped his arms around her shoulders just as the doorbell jingled once more.

Roan stepped through, followed by Harper, Monty, Madi and Bellamy, the latter of whom stopped in his tracks at the sight of Finn. Clarke didn’t have much time to think about that, however, because her parents were rushing over to hug her and kiss her forehead and _oh my god was her mother **pregnant?!**_

“We’ve missed you so much,” Monty swore.

“As you can see there have been a few developments since the last time we saw you,” Harper joked, gesturing to her own belly.

“Understatement of the year,” Clarke said, unable to stop staring.

Harper pinched her cheek playfully, looking her over. “I’m so happy you’re back.”

“When she says ‘I’ she means ‘we’, obviously,” Roan teased, nudging the two of them aside so that he could hug Clarke as well. “It’s good to have you back, Griffin, although admittedly not the way I would have wanted, considering the circumstances.”

She frowned. “What _are_ the circumstances?”

“Nia’s back,” he said, looking exhausted from the mere act of saying it aloud. “And she’s trying to place another curse on the town but no-one can remember what, because our memories of the last year are completely wiped.”

“What?”

“Yep. We waved you goodbye and then just… nothing.”

“I remember returning to the forest,” Bellamy piped up. “I was with you for a month or so before I went to find my ship and resume my search for my sister. Nia had taken over your castle, so we teamed up with the people - and Raven Reyes and her band of Merry Thieves, hey Raven - to take it back. Once you regained power, I left, promising to come back if I found Octavia; you told me you knew her once and gave me information on her whereabouts at that time. It was a bust, but it set me on a course that I had to see through. And then I received a note telling me a curse was coming and to run like hell: to find Clarke and bring her back to Storyborough.”

“Interesting,” Monty said pensively. “Makes sense - Nia was bitter at losing the kingdom yet again and decided to recreate Roan’s curse so she could have us powerless.”

“But it didn’t work, because we still have magic here,” Roan said, creating a fireball on the tip of his finger just to make a point.

Madi gasped. “Oh my god, you have MAGIC?!”

“Oh I should have mentioned, Madi still doesn’t have her memories back,” Clarke winced.

“Good to know,” Roan said, extinguishing the flame before he bent down to Madi’s eye level. “Uh, that was a trick of the eye, it’s all done with mirrors.”

“Smooth,” Murphy said, stretching out the word to really emphasise how sarcastic he was being.

“Shove it, Pinnocchio.”

Clarke held up a hand, curtailing the fight. “So, we’ve got to undo this memory curse so we can stop Nia from enacting _another_ curse, and also Wicked Witch of the West is around, so we need to be doubly careful.”

“Is anyone else sick of curses?” Miller asked.

“I sure am,” a voice said, and the entire diner reacted, on their feet in seconds as a green figure appeared in the centre of the room. The coloured smoke faded around Lexa as she smiled at them all, gaze eventually coming to settle on Clarke. Her skin was emerald green and it suited her, glittering in the artificial light. “I didn’t come here to fight.”

“Pity,” Bellamy said, hand on his sword.

“Down boy, I’m not trying to steal your girlfriend again,” she said. “Although I did a pretty good job of it, let’s be honest.”

“What do you want, Lexa?” Clarke asked.

“I want what you want - to take Nia out,” she admitted. “I pretended to be on her side to hitch a ride with my memories intact, but I never wanted the world she tried to create. I stayed in Los Angeles to protect you from anything she might send your way, and when the pirate appeared I figured that was one of her lackeys - the last time I saw him he was working with her and Shumway - but I realised once he put himself in front of you that he was doing the same job I was doing. So I played up the evil act in case Nia was watching and came back here to lie low until you arrived.”

“Likely story,” Raven said sarcastically. “Why not just explain who you were?”

“Because Clarke had no memory of this place, remember? Better to just keep her close and protect her from whatever danger came after her. We need the Savior if we’re going to save this town.”

“I don’t trust her,” Bellamy said.

“Of course you don’t,” Finn rolled his eyes.

“What’s that supposed to mean, jackass?”

Harper spoke over them, looking to her daughter. “What do you think, Clarke, do you believe her?”

Clarke looked into Lexa’s eyes; there wasn’t a single trace of deception there. “Yeah, I do.”

“Is no-one else going to talk about the fact that Mom’s girlfriend is _green_ and the mayor can create _fire_ and you’re all arguing about curses like this is _normal?!”_ Madi yelled, stomping her foot petulantly.

Monty put a hand on her shoulder. “I know it doesn’t make much sense now kid, but I promise it will. You just gotta suspend your disbelief for a little while, can you do that?”

“Clarke,” Roan said, solemn. “We need to break this memory curse in order to know what Nia’s planning so we can stop her, what’s the plan?”

Clarke leaned on the table in front of her, trying to catch up to everything that was going on. This was a lot to take in, especially as her old memories jostled to fit in against her manufactured ones. “Lexa, is there anything you can tell us?”

Lexa walked forward, putting a vial on the table, inside which was a moving, glowing green liquid. “This might help with the memory thing.”

“What is it?”

“A potion to restore memory,” she said, without any hint of irony, and Clarke nearly laughed at the absurdity of it.

Roan stalked forward and picked it up, holding it against the light. “It’s a _what?”_

“Potion to restore your memories,” she repeated. “Don’t look at me like that, I’ve had a year to think this whole thing over and even though I was trying to make Nia believe I was on her side, there was always the chance she might see through me. I created enough of this for myself and anyone else I might need. You brew this into your coffee and you can give the entire town back their memories in a matter of hours.”

“I could kiss you right now,” Roan said.

“Thanks, but I don’t swing that way,” Lexa nodded curtly. “Now let’s get on with this, we don’t have much time before Nia realises what I’m doing.”

Roan tossed the vial to Mr Miller, who uncorked it and poured it into the coffee bean grinder, beginning to dispense it into caps so that Nathan could start making pots of coffee.

“I don’t like coffee,” Jasper said, making a face.

“Suck it up, dwarf,” Wick clapped him on the back. “I don’t like your face and I have to see it every day.”

Miller started walking around filling everyone’s cups as soon as the first pot was done, and soon there were people shaking their heads and grumbling as memories shoved their way back into their minds. Harper and Monty were the first affected, leaning on each other as they tried to piece together everything that they’d been missing. Madi sipped her coffee tentatively, but before long she too was regaining her memories.

“Oh my god,” she said, aghast. “How could I forget all of you?!”

“It’s not your fault,” Bellamy promised, as the only person who wasn’t keeling over with a headache other than Clarke, who was busy helping Miller. “It was the curse.”

“Still!”

“I know, kid,” he rubbed her back soothingly.

“I’ve got it!” Harper called out, causing a lot of people to groan sharply at the loud noise, but she wasn’t to be stopped. She grabbed Clarke mid-pour. “I know what Nia did. She kidnapped Russell from the castle and used him to cast this curse. It’s why there’s still magic in Storyborough - it’s _his_ magic she’s using to feed her power.”

“But Russell’s powerful, if she’s using his magic, then why can we still use ours?” Roan asked. “Surely she would have thought of that?”

Harper thought it over, and Monty smacked his head in realisation, “She- ow, she doesn’t _know_ the rest of us have access to the magic! We’ve only been here a few weeks, and we haven’t tried to fight her yet, so there’s every chance she has no idea that we have access to the magic here.”

“You think Russell is feeding it to us in secret?” Wick asked, downing the last of his coffee.

“The only other option is that Nia just _forgot_ , and that doesn’t seem quite as likely, does it?”

“Probably not,” Murphy said. “So how do we get the bastard back?”

“Give me a minute,” Monty begged, dropping his head back into his hands. Everyone in the room was in a similar state of distress as their memories returned, and Clarke shared a look with Bellamy - this was what she must have looked like when she took the potion in Los Angeles.

Raven raised a hand. “If anyone’s interested, I have a plan.”

* * *

Raven’s plan was simple, yet fairly solid, but Clarke was still a bundle of nerves. She sent Wells away with Madi, trusting him to keep her safe and hidden while they enacted the plan, but she was terrified that they might fail. If they did, Wells would be the only thing keeping Madi from Nia’s wrath. She took a deep breath. “This will work.”

“That’s the spirit, Princess,” Bellamy said, eyes front.

“You ready?” Raven’s voice spoke out of the walkie talkie at Clarke’s hip.

She unclipped it and brought it to her lips. “Ready when you are.”

“On my signal,” Raven said.

Clarke peered out of the diner window, looking for it. Right on cue, there was a massive explosion in the main street. She cursed under her breath as Roan, Monty, Emori, Bellamy and Harper followed her out the back door. “I loved that fucking car.”

“I will magic you another one, keep low,” Roan muttered, pushing her forward through the side-street.

She could hear the commotion happening behind them; Nia had clearly arrived, battling with Raven and the other volunteers with the weapons they’d built in the diner, aided by Wick’s fairydust and Raven’s marksmanship. She didn’t look back.

They moved through the alleyways, palms out and down, feeling for any trace of Russell’s distinctive magic.

It had to be there somewhere.

“I’ve got it,” Roan hissed, lifting a hand and pointing towards the library. “Down there!”

They changed course, hurrying quietly around parked cars and office buildings until they reached the library doors. She tried them, but nothing happened.

“I’ve got this,” Emori muttered, creeping to the front and getting down low. She picked the lock in a matter of seconds - it really was quite impressive and Clarke would have taken the time to tell her if things weren’t so urgent.

They ran in, closing the door behind them, and Emori stayed back to relock it.

Clarke had the trail of magic now too, and she and Roan walked together, following the reverberations of power through the stacks. They reached a bookshelf by a wall, confused. “It’s coming from here.”

“It’s a secret passage,” Monty said, grabbing books one by one and tugging. When nothing happened, he moved to the next shelf, and Harper started doing the same, checking every novel. “It’s gotta be one of these!”

Clarke looked at the shelves. “Let’s think about this.”

“We don’t have _time_ ,” Roan pointed out.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, centering herself. “C’mon Russell,” she said, trying to send the message to him. “Tell us how to get to you.”

Something yanked at her magic and she fell forward, hand landing on _The Road_ by Cormac McCarthy. “You _would_ like that book, you dick,” she said, right before she pulled it and a door opened to reveal an elevator.

They filed into it and pressed the only button. When the door closed it plunged them into darkness and Clarke wasn’t sure they’d even reached the bottom until she heard a distinctive voice through the black;

“I picked it because I assumed no-one would borrow it,” Russell griped. “And so far, I’ve been right. You all took your time getting here.”

“Make your secret door easier to find next time,” Roan complained, creating fire in his hand so they could see. Ahead of them, tied to the floor by vines and shackled with something metal on his ankles, was Rumplestiltskin.

Harper and Monty got to work cutting the vines one by one until Russell could move freely, while Clarke and Emori examined his shackles.

“Can you pick them?” Clarke asked.

“Not likely,” Emori shook her head. “They’re magical - they need a different kind of key.”

Bellamy crouched next to them. “I recognise these; they’re the kind only the person who put on can take off.”

“You’re telling me we need Nia to _voluntarily_ take these off him?” Clarke asked.

“If you want me to have the full extent of my power back, then yes,” Russell said. “I’ve been stretching it enough by allowing you your magic without her noticing, anything else she’ll see immediately and tie me back down and then we’re all screwed.”

“We’ll take you up there and come up with something on the way,” Roan said, and shoved the man into the elevator shaft.

It was a tad more cramped with Russell added to the mix, but they made it safely to the top in one piece, and Emori muttered something to Bellamy as the door swung open, letting them out into the library. Bellamy nodded, whispering back, and then the two of them faced the group. “We might have an idea.”

“A really stupid idea,” Emori acknowledged.

“But it’s the best we’ve got,” Bellamy said.

“Sometimes that’s all we need, what’s the plan?” Monty asked.

“We need one of you magical types to put some kind of shield over the shackles, so that it looks like we’ve already removed them,” Emori explained. “And then we need to entice Nia to attack Russell.”

They paused a moment, thinking it over, and Russell looked irritated, but he was nodding when he said, “It might just be moronic enough to work.”

They snuck out of the library, jogging back to the main street where they could still hear the noises of battle. When they stepped out into the road, Clarke took in the carnage - people wounded on the sidewalk, catapults and trebuchets tipped over, fire climbing up the decorative trees, and still the people fought back as Nia walked slowly down the street towards them, fending off every attack with a disinterested wave of the hand. Like this was _boring_ for her.

Roan clicked a finger and the shackles around Russell’s ankles turned invisible. “Now or never, Griffin.”

Clarke straightened her spine and walked out into Nia’s view, keeping her pace slow so as to not arouse suspicion of Russell, and together they made their way in front of the fighting townspeople.

Nia stopped in her tracks. “Miss Griffin. Do you ever tire of being a thorn in my side?”

Clarke didn’t say anything, she simply folded her arms and stared the evil witch down. Nia narrowed her eyes at the cool demeanour and glanced at the rest of the party, gaze locking on Russell.

“You released my pet,” she snarled. “That’s impossible.”

“Nope,” Clarke lifted a hand, swirling magic around in her fingers. “Give up now, Nia.”

Nia laughed, a shrill, nasty sound. “Not until all of you have died slow, painful deaths. I’m saving you and your mother for last.”

She lifted her hands, creating a powerful wave of magic, and sent it flying towards them. Roan and Clarke worked together to deflect it, arms coming up in unison and keeping it from touching the others.

Nia’s face twisted into an ugly expression and she gathered magic at her fingertips before she threw it, a hundred tiny blades of darkness aimed at all of them.

“Now!” Clarke yelled, and Bellamy threw a sword while Harper fired volleys of arrows as distraction, while she and Roan used all their strength to try and funnel the magical blades towards the ground in front of Russell.

They hit the shackles with a burst of purple light, shattering them to dust, and Nia screeched, an unholy noise that made everyone within hearing range clap their hands over their ears and double over to escape it.

Russell grinned.

He rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck as the magic flowed back into his veins.

“You tricked me!” Nia screamed. “I’ll kill you for this!”

Nia fisted the air and all the oxygen left Clarke’s lungs. She tried to gasp but nothing happened, and she scrabbled at her neck for some source of the blockage, but Nia’s magic was cutting off her air from the inside, and she was starting to lift off the ground, toes barely scraping the road. Her friends cried out, running over to her, but there was nothing they could do.

Russell glanced at her briefly, before turning back to Nia. “Be gracious in defeat, witch. You’re beaten - give yourself up before I have to hurt you.”

Clarke felt unconsciousness beckoning.

“NEVER!” Nia lifted her other hand, readying for a final fight, but Russell didn’t let her get that far.

He snapped his fingers and the air rushed back into Clarke’s lungs as she collapsed into her mother’s side, heaving painful gasps.

“I’d get off the street if I were you,” Russell said to them, quiet, calm, _deadly._

Bellamy took Clarke’s other side and he and Harper helped her towards the diner as the others started picking up unconscious people and dragging them towards any shelter they could find. Lexa ran out to magick the rest of them away, displacing them to safe places.

They had barely reached the door when a shockwave more powerful than Clarke had ever felt rocketed through the town, decimating everything in its wake. Weapons turned to ash, fires went out, and every window in main street shattered, and Bellamy pulled both Clarke and Harper away from the door to keep their eyes shielded from the glass that exploded outwards.

Regaining her senses, Clarke lifted her head to see what had happened, but Russell was walking towards them calmly, like nothing had happened.

“What happened to Nia? Is she dead?” Harper asked.

“No, I sent her back to the realm she removed us from,” he shrugged. “But considering that realm no longer exists, it may as well be death. She’s never going to bother us again.”

Harper slumped, relieved, against her daughter, and Clarke took another breath in, the air somehow tasting sweeter knowing that they were safe from Nia, and from whatever curse she’d been planning to cast.

“I think it’s time for a party, don’t you?” Russell asked. “Oh by the way, it’s good to have you back in town, Clarke. The place wasn’t the same without you.”

Clarke couldn’t help it - she laughed. And it might have been hysterical or just an outlet for everything that had happened in the last thirty-six hours, but she laughed and laughed, and one by one everyone joined in until the entire town was lighting the street with joy.

* * *

Russell wasn’t lying about the party. After he and the other magical powered folks wandered down Main Street restoring the windows, he temporarily enlarged the diner so it would fit the entire population of Storyborough, and soon there was music playing and food plates being passed around and couples dancing, and the town felt almost back to normal again.

Clarke, tired, tried to keep to the corner away from the festivities so she could get her head screwed on right, but naturally people kept coming up to her to chat anyway. She watched as Miller and Jasper swung Madi between them in time to the music, and a smile pulled at her lips. This was what she’d been missing - albeit unknowingly - in Los Angeles for the last year: the feeling of being at home.

A few of them lingered a while, and Wick said, “We were a bit rushed earlier, but I want to know the full tale - how did you find us, how did you get here?”

“It was all Bellamy,” Clarke said matter-of-factly. “He found me in Los Angeles. It’s a funny story actually-” she cut herself off, about to recount his attempt to kiss her when he first turned up, when the realization hit: Bellamy loved her. He loved her enough to think that his kiss might restore her memories, even if he didn’t know if she loved him back. She swallowed. “Uh, he crashed what was supposed to be a date with Lexa-”

“Because I was busy fake-reporting to Nia!” Lexa defended herself.

“-and I threatened to pepper spray him,” Clarke finished, hoping it was enough of a dramatic flair to cover up the sound of her racing heart. It seemed to work - Wick, Jasper and Miller roared with laughter, and she took advantage of their distraction to finish off her rum.

“It’s good to see you,” Finn appeared at her side. “Buy you a drink?”

She squinted at him teasingly. “Just the one.”

“Liar,” Lexa said as she made to head back towards the dancefloor, holding her glass up in cheers. “No hard feelings, right?”

“You’re buying me every drink I want for the next year,” Clarke said, raising an eyebrow at her.

Lexa snorted. “Fair. See you round, Savior.”

“And don’t call me that!” Clarke called after her. Finn plonked a whiskey in front of her, smiling hesitantly. She knocked it back. “You okay, Finn?”

“I met someone else, while we were in the Enchanted Forest,” he said in a rush. “She’s one of the portside merchants and she’s really sweet. You’d like her.”

“I’m sure I will,” Clarke smiled, nudging him. “I’m glad you’re happy, Finn, I really am.”

“What about you, you were happy with Lexa, right?”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t real, not really. I like Lexa, but she’s not…”

“Not Bellamy,” Finn finished for her.

Clarke ducked her head to hide her self-consciousness.

Finn slid off his chair, “I’m going to dance with my girlfriend. You should go grab yourself a pirate.”

Much as she didn’t love taking advice from Finn, she couldn’t agree more, and she glanced around the diner in search of him, but Bellamy was nowhere to be found. She frowned, getting to her feet so she could have a better look, but Roan caught her arm, “He’s down at the docks.”

She thanked him and slipped out the door, making her way down to the docks and enjoying the peace and quiet as she did. It didn’t take long to get there, and once she was in the quay it didn’t take long to work out where he might be.

Clarke could see him, sitting on the end of an empty pier, staring out into the ocean. She approached quietly and when she sat down next to him, letting her legs dangle over the edge, he didn’t say anything.

“I thought you might be gone by now,” she admitted.

“Why would I leave?”

“You’re a pirate,” she swung her legs, trying to act nonchalant. “I know you don’t like being stuck in one place for long.”

He frowned, still not looking at her. “Key word being _stuck_. I never hated staying places where I felt at home. For a long time, home has been my ship, which meant that wherever I went I was home, so I could travel to the far reaches of the realms without ever feeling lost.”

She leaned in, “Are you saying you feel at home here?”

He turned his head, catching her eye. “I’m saying I don’t hate this town as much as I used to.”

And she couldn’t help it - she kissed him. She closed the miniscule gap between them and pressed her lips to hers and he kissed her right back. His hand came up to her neck, thumb brushing her jawline, and she tugged at his leather jacket, trying to drag him closer without yanking them both off the pier. He laughed into her mouth, turning them so that she was lying on her back and he was propped over her, deepening the kiss. She threaded her fingers through his hair, making him moan, and in retaliation he slid his hand down her side, fingers playing with the hem of her shirt.

He broke the kiss to catch his breath, forehead pressing against hers, and she couldn’t help herself.

“I don’t hate you either,” she whispered conspiratorially.

“Really, Princess? I wouldn’t have guessed,” he replied with a smile in his voice, right before he kissed her again, slower this time, but no less passionate. His hand ended up under her shirt, tracing patterns in her skin, and hers tugged on his hair until he bit her bottom lip, making her stifle a moan of her own against his lips. He began moving down, trailing kisses over her jaw, down her throat, across her collarbone, and she caught her breath with every touch.

Her legs were still dangling off the edge.

“Where,” she tried to collect a thought, any thought, but his lips kept scrambling her brain. “Where’s your - mmph - your ship? I could go for a room right now. With a - _Bellamy_ \- with a door and a lock.”

He stopped kissing her and pulled back, which was not her intention, but his eyes were serious.

“Bellamy?”

He huffed, getting to his feet and helping her up with him. When she was standing he slid an arm around her waist, keeping her close. “I sold it.”

“You sold _The Caduceus?”_ Clarke’s jaw dropped.

“I got the message to find you and I used her to outrun the curse, but in order to find myself a portal I needed something of worth to trade. Magic beans aren’t exactly a dime a dozen, Princess, you know that,” he shrugged, looking down at his feet.

“You sold your ship for me?”

“Well, not just for you, our friends were in danger, your parents, your-”

“That was your home,” she said, putting a hand on his face to make him look at her. “You gave up your home for me.”

“Like I said, home is where you keep your heart,” he lifted his hook to tap her chest gently. “And I’m keeping mine right here.”

She held the metal against her chest, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. “Bellamy…”

“I told you, Princess, I’m not looking to leave any time soon.”

“I will get you your ship back,” she promised.

“It was just a ship-”

“I will get your ship back,” she repeated, gripping his hook tighter as she tilted up to press her forehead against his. “I can’t believe you’d do that for me.”

“Can’t you?” Bellamy asked, incredulous. “Don’t you know, Clarke, just how much I-”

She put a finger to his lips. “I love you too, Bellamy. I love you so much that the moment I saw you in Los Angeles my brain tried to fit you back into my head, made me remember you without any memory of you, and so much that saying goodbye to you was so hard I had to kiss you because I couldn’t think of the right words. It was never about distractions for me. I’ve loved you since you decided to stay in Storyborough even though your sister wasn’t here. I’ve loved you since you steered The Caduceus to Neverland even though you swore never to go back there, just because I asked. I’ve loved you since I kissed you in that cave and I loved you since you said goodbye to me before I forgot you. _I love you, Bellamy.”_

He swooped down, kissing her with everything he had and she threw her arms around his neck to keep herself upright as he curled his hooked arm around her waist and tangled his hand in her hair.

When they finally slowed down, the sun was nearly gone and she hadn’t even noticed it beginning to set.

“We should probably head back to town,” she said reluctantly.

“True, we can’t leave Monty waiting - he’ll be wanting to interrogate me about my intentions,” Bellamy joked, keeping her close as they began walking back up the pier towards Miller’s Diner.

“I don’t think anyone who knows you could doubt your intentions,” she said, more than a little doughy-eyed and he made a delighted sound in the back of his throat. She shrugged, “But yeah, Monty’s gonna kill you.”

“Worth it,” he grinned, kissing her temple.

“You say that now,” she teased, just as they reached the door to the diner and walked through it to a chorus of excited cheers.

Raven and Wick both tipped their glasses to them, Jasper was doing a happy dance near the dartboard, and Wells looked like he was trying to refrain from breaking into song. Clarke honestly would have loved to see it, but she was quickly distracted by the fifteen other people offering their commendation on her and Bellamy’s new relationship.

“I’m so happy for you both!” Emori said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Murphy added.

“You deserve each other,” Russell said, smiling in a way that actually looked genuine.

Roan waved a hand and a bunch of party poppers appeared in thin air, bursting streamers at them. “Congratulations on finally realising what we all already knew.”

“Gee, thanks Roan,” Clarke said sarcastically, but she let him hug her anyway.

Wells raised his glass, “To Clarke - for saving the town and then getting the guy.”

“To Clarke,” everyone echoed, lifting their glasses merrily.

“I hate all of you,” Clarke complained, but Bellamy slid an arm around her waist. “Okay, maybe some of you aren’t so bad.”

“Welcome home, Clarke,” Harper said, as she and Monty moved to hug them both, dragging Madi into it as well. Soon it turned into a town-wide group hug and Clarke felt smothered but in the best possible way. The day was almost done and she knew one thing with absolute certainty - she had no end of good days to look forward to from that moment on.

_The nights are getting colder now_  
_And the air is getting crisp_  
_I first tasted the universe on a night like this_  
_A box of wine, and I'll abide_  
_In the hunger in her eyes_  
_In a place where the tree of good and evil still resides_  
_Still resides_

  
_Homecoming_  
_Homecoming, homecoming_

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think?! Too long?
> 
> kudos and comments make me happier than a pirate on his vessel <3 <3 <3


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